Hogwarts: Blood Lines
by Harris Rose
Summary: Harry Potter and his friends defeated Voldemort, and are now married and have children. Meet the next generation of Hogwarts students as they try to take their parents places...or step away from them. Rated T for future added content.
1. The Threesome and the Train Station

Lily Potter, age 12, sat on her trunk at King's Cross Station. Platform 9 3/4 was packed with adult witches and wizards hugging and kissing their children goodbye, while children were blushing and moving away from their parents in embarrassment. Owls screeched, toads croaked, and parents sobbed.

Lily kicked her foot against the stone platform and sighed. She looked up at her parents: they were chatting with her Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron. Her aunt and uncle's three children, Harriet (age 11), and the twins, Robby and Paul (ages 15), were nowhere to be seen.

Lily's brother, Sirius, was nowhere in sight either. Figured. Why would a 5th year want to hang around his 13-year-old sister? "I'm almost 14!" Lily thought and held up her head proudly. Well, nearly 14. She would be turning 14 next April.

Not that it mattered. Her brother Sirius had lived up to the reputation that his name carried, in a good way. He was popular, the Seeker on the Qudditch team, and even achieved good grades in every class but Herbology and Potions, where he did not outshine everyone.

"Oy, Lily!" called a voice behind her. Lily whipped around to look behind her, causing her long reddish-brown hair, to fly out behind her in a big whoosh.

"Arisilla!" Lily cried to her best friend. Arisilla was coming towards Lily, pulling her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, behind her.

Arisilla was the daughter of Remus and Tonks Lupin, and just like her mother, she was a Metamorphous. Unlike the long, honey-colored tresses, the pointed and sloped nose, and the almond-shaped gray eyes she had had when they parted after last year, she now had short, choppy dark brown hair in a rock-star feathery style, big brown eyes, and a cute, upturned nose.

"Ari, I am sooo glad that you are finally here!" Lily hugged her best friend. Ari could have traveled with the really popular kids at Hogwarts because of her ever-changing looks, cheerfulness, and perfect grades, but she chose to hang back with Lily.

"Me too. Hey, where is Sirius?" Ari glanced around, searching.

"Oh come on, Ari. Get over your crush, Sirius wouldn't date a third year. Anyway, as of a week ago in Diagon Alley, he is currently going out with Lin Chang." Lin was the daughter of Cho Chang, who had divorced her husband, Michael Corner, about two years ago.

"Oh…Lin is really pretty…"Ari trailed off. She shrugged, "Oh well, they'll break up soon enough. Lin is as fickle as she is pretty."

"Arisilla! Lily!" A male voice was coming from their right. Lily and Ari's other best friend, Thomas Longbottom, was running towards them, his light brown hair flopping into his eyes. Though his parents were not remarkable in the looks department, Thomas had come out as a true winner with his trademark crooked grin, handsome features, and tall height. He was not as brilliant in school as Ari was, nor as naturally clever as Lily, but he had a knack for remembering seemingly useless bits of information that came in handy later on, a great understanding of plants and their properties, and was a naturally great liar because he loved to spin great stories like his mother Luna, a famous fiction-writer.

"How was your summer?" Ari punched Thomas in the arm.

"Ow-wow-wow!" Thomas pretended to groan in agony and rubbed his shoulder. "Pretty boring, actually. Mum said we were going to go on this camping trip to the mountains and try and catch some Snuffly-Stump-Footed Monkey Lions, but dad forgot that he had an important report to finish for the Ministry about this new type of plant he invented. How about you two?"

"Boring as well. Didn't do much, though we did go to Southern France for about a week. I got fat from eating too many croissants," Ari rubbed her stomach, which was as flat as it had been at the beginning of summer.

"My summer was uneventful. Sirius went away to the "Oliver Wood's Qudditch Camp", so at least I had some time to myself," Lily said, shrugging.

"Hey, so listen, I got—," Thomas was cut off by a sneering voice.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the three biggest losers in the school: Potter, Longbottom, and Lupin," smirked Draco Malfoy Jr., the son of Lily's father's archrival.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the three students most likely to flunk out of the school: Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. And Zabini," Lily added, nodding towards a boy walking up to Malfoy's trio.

"Shut it, Potty jr. You wouldn't be so damn cocky if your pathetic friends weren't with you."

"And YOU wouldn't even be able to confront me without your pathetic friends. What, do they hold your hand when you have to go to the bathroom?"

"We're not even on the train to school yet, and we have already gotten into our first brawl," Thomas smiled, "I wonder if this is any indication to what the rest of the year will be like."

"Let's hope so!" Ari said fiercely, giving Malfoy a sharp, crazed look. Ari, the devious girl that she was, loved trouble.

"Let's just go," Lily murmured, taking her friends by their arms and steering them towards her mum and dad.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter looked oddly like the Mr. and Mrs. Potter before them. Harry Potter had the tousled black hair, tall stance that screamed "Qudditch player!" and round glasses. Ginny Potter had long, wavy red hair and a petite figure, and though she was small, it was obvious that she was tough and mischievous. Both were talking to Thomas' parents.

"Well, look at this! What we've got here is a junior D.A. league!" chuckled Mr. Longbottom as the threesome approached. Lily, Thomas, and Ari all groaned together. Sure, their parents were famous. Lily's dad had defeated Voldemort. Ari's parents had been fighting Voldemort even longer than Lily's dad. Thomas' parents had fought alongside the Potters. But they were sick of hearing the stories. The teachers at Hogwarts already looked at them differently than they did the rest of the students.

Even worse, all of the children of the original D.A. and Order of the Phoenix had been placed on a pedestal above the other students. Who had suffered from this? Ari made a list in her diary (she is an avid historian, as she likes to think).

Lily and Sirius Potter

Harriet, Robby, and Paul Weasley

Arisilla Lupin

Thomas Longbottom

Lyla and Kasey Weasley (Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley's son and daughter, who have unfortunate French names that they are very proud of)

Lawrence Thomas (Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown's son. Thomas hangs out with him when he gets tired of silly girl talk)

Connor, Dana, and Kendall Weasley (Fred Weasley and Angelina Johnson's son and two daughters)

Catherine, Dane, and Kameron (George Weasley and Verity's (the young woman from HBP who worked in the joke shop) daughter and two sons)

And that was the majority of them. There were a few others, but Ari did not deem them worthy enough.

The whistle on the Hogwart's Express sounded, causing all of the parents to pause in their weeping and chattering, except for Ginny Weasley. She scooped Lily into her arms and said, "Now Lily, promise me that you will have a good year. Study hard, but…" she turned to her husband, who smiled and finished the sentence, "But have some fun." He winked at his daughter, who smiled in return. Lily had no doubt that other than her uncles Fred and George's children, she and Sirius were the only students encouraged to embrace their troublemaking side.

After a farewell to their parents, Lily, Ari, and Thomas dragged their luggage onto the train.

"Fancy finding a compartment?" Ari huffed as she struggled to pull her trunk through the teeming mass of students, all greeting each other and trying to stuff themselves into compartments.

"Yeah, lucky us if we find one," Thomas said feebly. A third year had just accidentally rammed their elbow into his stomach as they were trying to get through a compartment door.

The threesome made their way towards the back of the train, only to find that all of the compartments were crowded.

"Well, it looks like we'll just have to stay the entire time in this hall--," Lily was cut off by a familiar voice, lightly hilted with a French accent.

"Cousin Lily, _bonjour_! We have space in ze last compartment. Come and join us!" cried Lyla Weasley, a fourth year, in her singsong voice. All male heads turned towards her as she called out to Lily. Lyla looked just like her mother, who was part veela, and had the same naturally beautiful looks and long, pale blond hair.

"Damn, I don't want to go!" Ari whispered to Lily and Thomas.

"There's nowhere else _to_ go!" Thomas whispered back in an exasperated voice.

The threesome reluctantly made their way to the back compartment. Much to their dismay, Lyla's brother Kasey, who was also part veela and was a second year. He was even more annoying than his sister, and was so overly arrogant sometimes that it was hard to believe he was kind Bill Weasley's son.

Also in the compartment were Harriet, Robby, Paul, and Sirius.

"Hello, Harriet. Are you excited about the Sorting?" Lily asked her cousin kindly. Harriet gave her cousin a slightly nervous look, but otherwise looked excited.

"Oh, I do so hope to be put into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw! I mean, the majority of you are in Gryffindor, so it's my first choice. That is, if I could choose."

"But Lyla and Kasey are in Ravenclaw," Ari pointed out, a sly smile on her face. Harriet shuddered and threw a furtive glance at her two French veela cousins, who were speaking in fast, fluent French together.

"Um, that's quite alright."

Lily smiled at her cousin. She was incredibly smart for an eleven-year-old, and treated Lyla and Casey as if they were the ones that were younger than her.

Lily settled back into her chair, Ari and Thomas across from her. Sirius and Lawrence were sitting together by the door, and Harriet was curled up next to Lily. Robby and Paul, however, were stretched out on the floor, whispering.

"What are you two up to?" Lawrence inquired.

"None of your business, Thomas," Robby said with a devilish grin.

"You can't call him by his last name, idiot, since _my_ first name is Thomas," Thomas said indigently to Robby. "What are you guys doing, anyway?"

Paul heaved a great, dramatic sigh. "Nothing that you would find interesting. At least, not until some Slytherin annoys us."

"You two are more like Uncle Fred and Uncle George than their own children!" Lily laughed. She was rewarded with two Cheshire grins.

"We'll take that as a complement. Genes are odd, they are. I mean, look at you and Sirius," Paul nodded towards Lily and then her brother. "Both of you resemble your parents, and yet the two of you are nothing alike."

Lily shrugged, and was about to respond when there was a _tap tap tap _noise on the compartment door.

"Hey, look who it is!" Sirius shouted in glee.


	2. Eyes Met Over the Candy Trolley

Disclaimer: I wish that the first letters of my first and middle name made something cool like J.K. for "Just Kidding," but sadly, they don't. I'm not JKing about being J.K. I don't own any of the rights to Harry Potter. Oh, and hey guys, PLEASE COMMENT, because nobody did last time, and it would really help me out if you left some feedback.

"EEEEIII!!!!" screeched every girl in the compartment as they turned to the door that Sirius was pointing at. Outside of the door was a normal looking male student. His black curly hair, brown eyes, and tall stance were nothing out of the ordinary, though they were very nice features. His cool, torn clothing didn't look out of the ordinary either. It was whom he was that made the girls screech.

"Oh my goodness, I didn't theenk he would be coming to 'Ogwarts! Weetch Weekly mentioned something about it, but I feegured that it was rumours!" squealed Lyla as she waved her hand towards the boy to come into the compartment. Lyla had no confidence issues.

"Well, where else would he have gone? He's British, he's a wizard, and if I know that if I were home schooled like he was, I would want to transfer into a real school," Ari said as she smoothed her hair down.

The boy entered the compartment. Thomas, Sirius, Robby, Paul, and Kasey said "Hey," and "Hullo," all at once, and resumed what they had been doing before.

"Hullo guys, long time no see!" the boy smiled at the guys, then turned towards the girls, who were looking up at him with shining, admiring faces. "Hullo ladies, you are all looking quite lovely today." He sat down in-between Lyla and Lily.

With a great sigh of content, Lyla breathed, "Ohhh…_bonjour_, Erick."

Lily smiled shyly. She had only met Erick twice before. The reason why she had even met him and his mum at all was because apparently, his mum knew Mrs. Lupin from a long time ago. So when Mrs. Lupin was having a huge birthday bash a few months ago, Erick and his mum showed up for the festivities.

"So, why'd you choose to go to Hogwarts? You'll be mobbed by a bunch of screeching girls," Robby said without looking up from his game of Exploding Snap he had just started with Paul.

"And probably guys too," smirked Paul.

Erick shrugged. "I dunno why, I guess I just wanted the normal school experience. Mum's old band mates are always coming 'round and staying for days at a time, interrupting my studies. I'd rather be interrupted at school by my friends."

Lyla sighed happily, not taking in a word he had just said. "Oh, you are so very brave! I theenk I would have been too scared to do zhat! Ee-specially because my muzzer happened to be in ze Weird Sisters!"

"_Was_ in the Weird Sisters," corrected Erick nonchalantly. Erick could obviously sense how fake Lyla was, though Lily was pretty sure that Erick had given Lyla the old look-over from head-to-toe more than once.

"Anything from the trolley?" a woman's voice called out from the corridor. "A-nee-thing from the trolley?!"

"Cor, I'm STARVING!" cried Robby and Paul at the same time. They lunged towards the corridor, scrambling to pull out their coins. Lily, a sucker for Chocolate Frogs, followed her cousins out the door. Harriet, wide-eyed at all of the possibilities she could get from the candy-laden cart, followed Lily out the door.

"Get me a Pumpkin Pasty!" shouted Sirius to his sister.

As Robby and Paul returned to their compartment, arms filled with candies, pasties, and other treats, Harriet quietly circled the candy cart, eyeing all of her choices. Lily was about to ask for two Chocolate Frogs and a Pumpkin Pasty when a voice behind her said, "I'll take a Chocolate Frog and a box of Every Flavor Beans."

Lily turned around and locked her green eyes with a pair of dark chocolate brown eyes. The eyes belonged to Michael Chang, Lin Chang's brother. He looked as lovely as his older sister—a fifth year (he was a fourth year)—and had the same long, dark hair, smooth skin, and sharp almond-shaped eyes that made Lily's almond-shaped eyes look like walnuts.

"Hey, Potter," he grinned at Lily.

_Oh great, here it comes…_thought Lily, and she prepared herself just as her knees buckled, her legs turned to jelly, and her cheerful façade faded into oblivion, only to be replaced by a silly, timid smile.

"Oh, he…hey, Ch-Chang," stuttered Lily.

"I like that. Ch-Chang. Its cute," smiled Michael kindly at Lily. Lily knew he was only trying to make her feel better.

Just then, Lily felt a tug on the back of her robe. It was Harriet, clutching a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. "I'm all done," she said and peered up at her cousin.

"And who might this be?" Michael winked at Harriet, who blushed dramatically.

"This is Harriet Weasely," Lily told him.

"Ah, another cousin? How many do you have at school, exactly?"

Lily promptly told him, "Eleven, though some of my relatives are either expecting children or have children that are nearly old enough to come here."

Michael chuckled. "You're lucky, all I've got is Lin, and she's always with your brother."

"Yeah…" muttered Lily, unsure of what to say.

"Well, maybe we should hang out some time. You know, since our siblings have abandoned us. Conspire against them, and what not," Michael said breezily.

_Oh…my…holy…Gobstones…is he asking me OUT?! _yelled Lily in her head. No, it couldn't be. One of the most handsome, sweet, wonderful, and smartest guys in the school could in no way be wanting to actually spend more time than necessary with _her._

"Shu…Sure. That would be c-c-cool," stuttered Lily again.

"Great. I'll see you around," Michael flashed his gleaming smile, which admittingly was a little unnerving, and left.

"Whoa…" breathed Harriet as she and Lily made their way back into the compartment.

"I was just about to say that," a dazed Lily told her little cousin. Lily sat down and dropped her candy to the floor, forgetting that she was holding them at all.

If this is any indication to how this year is going to be, what with the hottest guy in school practically asking me out, and one of the most popular, richest guys attending my school, this is going to be one amazing year.

How wrong Lily was.

**Please comment!!!!! Please please comment!!!! Hardly anyone commented on my first chapter, please leave me some feedback!** If I get enough, I will write more, even though I am super busy in school right now. My life can't take much more, but in the hours that I am not working I like to write. So, leave me some feedback! NO FLAMING!!!! It's mean, and cruel, and quite rude.


	3. The Shrouded Figure

**Hey guys!** Well, I am glad I have so many hits…but it would be really awesome if you could leave me some _feedback_. Maybe tell me what my story is missing, or maybe just to tell me how great it is? ;)

Come on guys, I would really love some **reviews!** ** 3**

So, I haven't communicated with you guys yet! Anyway, the last chapter was just a little fill in. I know that I use a LOT of descriptions (that's what my English teachers have been telling me for years!) so if you think I should lie back on them let me know.

Expect a lot of chapters, but expect them to come pretty quick. I don't want to keep you guys waiting, and hey, I don't want to keep myself waiting. I want to write. 

**Disclaimer:** They released the release date of Deathly Hallows. One of my music teachers knew before me. If a middle-aged music teacher knew this before I DID, then I am so obviously not JK Rowling, and so I don't own any of her characters/story.

Lily was daydreaming until she moved her foot. She felt the packet containing a Pumpkin Pasty squish under her foot.

"Yurggg!" Lily pulled the unopened wrapper off of her shoe.

"Hey, you gonna eat that?" Paul asked her.

"Eww…here; take it!" Lily threw the Pumpkin Pasty at her cousin, hitting him squarely in the face.

"Look, it's starting to rain!" Sirius said as he glanced out of the window. Sure enough, darkness had descended over the mountains, and rain was obviously falling heavily outside because it was spattering the window. The lanterns began to flicker on in the corridors.

"We should change into our school robes, shouldn't we? I don't want to wait too long, because then we might get in trouble, and then that could—," Harriet's frantic worries were cut short by Ari.

"Don't worry so much! We can change into our robes right now, it won't be any problem."

And so everyone scrambled into his or her trunks to pull out their Hogwarts robes.

"WHAT on earth are THOSE?" Ari pointed to Lyla's robes. There were distressed rips and tears in her robes.

"Zees are ze new fashion! Reeped robes! I bought zees in Madam Malkin's shop, and believe you me, zey were very expensive!"

"We believe you," Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Why would you pay so much money for distressed robes when you can do them yourself?" Robby asked Lyla curiously.

"Because, zhat would defeat ze whole PURPOSE of zem!" Lyla responded in bewilderment, as if she couldn't fathom why anyone would question her fashion sense. "I would never do them myself! Zhat is…zhat is…RIDICULOUS!"

"Zhat, I mean, _that_ way of thinking is ridiculous," Ari retorted.

Lyla sniffed and looked down her nose at Ari. "Well, I wouldn't expect you to know anytheeng about fashion. You dress so…plainly."

"We all dress the same!" Ari shot back. "Although, you most definitely stand out with your stupid torn robes. You look like you either fell through a garbage chute and came out through a nest of brambles, or you are just trying to encompass the 'Poor-Chic' look with your stupid looking rips!" Ari huffed; her face was red, and her eyes were shining.

_I forgot that Lyla and Ari get along like Draco Jr. and I get along._ Lily mused. Ari was very short-tempered, and couldn't handle Lyla's _Lyla-nisms_.

"Hey look, there's the castle!" Sirius hurriedly pointed out the window, obviously trying to distract the bickering Ari and Lyla, but to no avail.

"I can't wait to see Hagrid!" exclaimed Thomas. "I've missed him."

"Me too. I saw him over the holidays; he came and visited my dad," said Lily.

"Yeah, he brought his homemade rock cakes…" Sirius recalled, shuddering. Everyone except Erick, who had never experienced Hagrid's cooking, shuddered along with Sirius.

Kasey was staring outside. "Look! Eet is 'Agrid, and someone else is accompanying him!" he suddenly exclaimed.

Everyone rushed over to the window to look outside. The train was slowing down. Sure enough, Hagrid was standing on the train's platform, holding out a lantern. Next to him was a tall, thin hooded figure. The light from the lantern shone upon the silvery-blue cloaked figure.

"I wonder who that is," Ari said, straining to look outside at the cloaked person.

"No idear, love," chuckled Paul in a Cockney accent. Ari rolled her eyes and made her way out of the compartment.

"Well, come on then!" she called over her shoulder. Robby, Paul, Sirius, Kasey, Lyla, Harriet, Thomas, Erick, and Lily all jostled together to exit the compartment.

"Oy, that's my foot—,"

"OUCH!"

"Stupid git, watch your—,"

"Owwwww!"

"QUIET!" yelled Lily, scaring everyone. "Come on, its not that hard. We just wait, one at a time, to leave the compartment."

"I've a better idear, love!" Paul said, and flung out his wand.

"Engorgio!" he cried, and the door in the compartment widened enough to let the entire group, plus their luggage, exit the compartment. Onlookers in other compartments, who were also trying to exit, applauded the group.

"Gits," muttered Lily, though secretly she thought it was funny.

The group finally made it to the platform, where, in the distance, they could see the horseless carriages that would take them up to the school.

"Potters, Weaselys, Longbottoms, and Lupins!" exclaimed a gruff voice.

"Hagrid!" cried all of the Potters, Weaselys, the Longbottom, and the Lupin.

"How you all been?" Hagrid asked excitedly.

"Lovely, Hagrid, how are you?" Lily and Sirius responded. They were about to glare at each other, but then they burst out in laughter. They often times acted like twins without meaning to, even though they were two years apart.

"Fine, fine, I'm jus' fine. I been tendin' to me new hippogriff!"

"_New_ hippogriff?" Robby asked in wonder.

"Yeah, I foun' a mate for Beaky! An' then they had their own hippogriff together! It's a healthy girl, named Featherbeak! Here's how I came up with the name. See, her mum was named Greyfeather, an' then—," Hagrid's rambling was cut short when the cloaked figure that the group had spotted from the train came up and placed their hand on Hagrid's shoulder.

"Oh…sorry 'bout that," Hagrid muttered. "You all best be gettin' to yer carriages."

"What, Hagrid…?"

"Jus' go, I'll come an' find you all later," Hagrid waved off the groups' protests.

Everyone looked quizzically at each other as Hagrid moved away from them. The cloaked figure stayed still and motionless a few feet away. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged, then went to the carriages.

Lily, Thomas, Ari, and Erick got into one carriage, while Sirius, Lyla, Kasey, Robby, and Paul got into the carriage behind them.

"Oy, see you up at the castle!" called Robby and Paul to Harriet, who was heading towards the lake with the other first years. Harriet shot them a frightful but excited look and turned away quickly, so as to keep up with Hagrid's long strides. The cloaked figure from the platform was gliding slowing behind the group, as if their feet were not touching the ground.

The carriages began to move, and everyone settled back into their seats.

"Wonder who that cloaked person is." Thomas said.

"Dunno, but they didn't seem friendly," Lily replied. Suddenly, a random thought occurred to Lily. "Hey, Erick. Aren't you supposed to go with the first years? How else are you going to be sorted?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you guys…no?" Erick looked around at Lily, Ari, and Thomas. "Well, I went, over the summer, to the school to get sorted. I got a special exception. Well, so did this other girl, who was waiting outside of the Headmistresses office, but I didn't see her for more than a second."

"There was someone else?" Ari asked, suddenly very interested.

"That's odd. I can see why you would get an exception, but it's pretty rare that someone transfers in after his or her first year. Even rarer to have _two _people transfer in," Lily remarked.

"So, what house did you get put into?" Thomas asked Erick.

Erick grinned as he said "Gryffindor!"

"Sweet!" Thomas clapped hands in the air with Erick.

Ari rolled her eyes, but Lily was still preoccupied with the mystery of the _other _new student. The problem was, she wouldn't be able to find out who this girl was unless she was put into Gryffindor. Hogwarts was so full of students that even though the student population was actually quite small compared to other schools it was still not out of the ordinary to come across someone who you had only seen once before. Lily liked a mystery, however, and wouldn't let a simple fact like that get in the way. And neither would Ari or Thomas. She would have talked to them about it, but Erick was in the carriage, and she did NOT want him overhearing about her, Ari, and Thomas' secret. Not just the new student secret, but also the _other _secret…

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Who is the cloaked figure? And what is this OTHER secret that Lily, Ari, and Thomas have? A bit wordy, I know, but I need to get these little scenes out of the way, even though they are just as important.

And guys, please comment! **I can't stress this enough**. I now have a lot of hits…and still only two comments, one of them being from me. I would REALLY REALLY like some feedback! PLEASE!!! I just want to know what everyone thinks, and if they have any ideas. I'll appreciate anything…except flaming! 


	4. Pumpkin Eclairs

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. I own Harry Otter, a loveable stuffed animal shaped like an otter that I bought at the zoo seven years ago.**

Thank you SOOO much everyone who has reviewed my story, especially Socra for wanting to read it! Feel free to make your own. _smile_

And thanks to everyone who has added me on their favorites or for story alerts, and to everyone who is reading my story! It's ALMOST like being a published author!

Anyway, I am busy right now with college applications, senior events, and school, plus writing my _own_ book. But this is a nice little project; I am really enjoying writing it. I just figured out more of the storyline last night, and the book should really pick up at a fast pace soon!

Well guys enjoy this next chapter! I'm going to go and make some tea. It's raining, and I want tea. :-D

Oh, and just to help you guys out, I'm thinking of putting this at the beginning of each chapter:

**Harry/Ginny: Lily and Sirius Potter**

**Ron/Hermione: Robby, Paul, and Harriet**

**Bill/Fleur: Lyla and Kasey**

**Lupin/Tonks: Arisilla (Ari)**

**Neville/Luna: Thomas**

**Fred/Angelina: Connor, Dana, and Kendall**

**George/Verity: Catherine, Dane, Kameron**

**Cho Chang/Divorced husband Michael Corner: Michael and Lin**

**Erick (son of a member in the Weird Sisters)**

I hope this all helps!!! It was really long, I know…

In this chapter, we meet a VERY important character. They will probably be added to the above list, they are so important. Happy reading!

It was a torrential downpour outside, and Lily was enjoying it. There was nothing in the world like being in a vast grand hall lit by hundreds of floating candles that were emitting soft glows, with raining pouring down above you. Lily felt warm and happy as she looked up at the ceiling, thankful that she was not a first year. She did, however, feel quite sorry for her cousin Harriet. The poor thing would be drenched from head-to-toe, inside and out.

On Lily's right sat Ari, and on her left sat Robby and then Paul. Robby and Paul quite liked their cousin Lily, and got along well with her. Lily enjoyed pranks and witty banter just as much as they did, though she tried hard not to show it and to act more mature. Sometimes, this proved almost too difficult.

Across from Lily and Ari sat Thomas, and on his left sat Erick, who was obviously trying to downplay who he was. He kept his head bowed, and kept pulling up the neck of his robes when he spoke. Lily knew that the minute he would probably be announced by the headmistress—the old but wise Professor McGonagall—the entire hall would turn and face him, and later mob him as he left the Grand Hall. He would not receive the same kind of awe and respecting form of praise the Potters and Weasleys, and Ari and Thomas, received.

Sirius was sitting a little ways down the table with Lawrence Thomas, and some of his other friends. Sirius really did like his family, but he preferred to hang out with his non-related friends.

Lyla was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Kasey (to this day, Lily has no idea how Lyla and Kasey ended up in the "smart" house), along with her cousins Catherine and Kameron.

"Cousins Lily, Sirius, Robby, and Paul! How are you?" called a girl a few feet away from Lily. She turned in her seat to see a pretty dark-haired girl sauntering up to the Gryffindor table. Her shoulder-length hair was straight, and she had a stylish, long fringe that hung in her eyes.

"Kendall!" Lily said happily, jumping out of her seat to hug her cousin. Kendall, a very popular seventh year, hugged her cousin back.

"Kenny," Sirius nodded towards her, and then went back to his conversation.

"Git," Kendall laughed. "So, I didn't see you guys on the train. But we got on the train early with Uncle George's kids, so it's no wonder we never saw you."

"Hi Lily," said Dana Weasley as she came up to her cousin. Dana was a second year, and had her dark brown-reddish hair in a braid down her back. She was just as pretty as her sister.

"Hi Dana," Lily said back, hugging her other cousin. "Where is the rest of the Weasely bunch?"

As if waiting for her to ask this, her cousins Dane and Connor came up. Dane was a fourth year, and Connor was a third year like Lily.

"Hey, Lils," teased Dane to his cousin. Lily grinned at him, then turned to Connor.

"Connor," she said, nodding at him. Connor nodded back at Lily and said, "Lily." Connor was looking as glum as ever. He had carried the same air of depression around him since the day he was sorted, and had remained sullen and dark every since then.

Because unfortunately, Connor was neither in Gryffindor like his sisters and Dane, nor Ravenclaw like his cousins Catherine and Kameron. He had not even been placed in Hufflepuff. Which on left one house…

Lily's eyes were sad as she watched Connor stalling, before he would have to go back to his table. Connor was probably the first Slytherin in Slytherin history to actually hate his house. This was why nobody could figure out why he was _in_ that particular house.

"Well, I best be going…"Connor trailed off and looked close to tears as he glanced at the table housing Draco Malfoy Jr., his second-year sister Rosy (Pansy Parkinson married Draco Sr.), Crabbe, Goyle, and all of the other Slytherin usuals.

"You best be going…you know you can't sit at our table," Dane muttered softly to his cousin, who was looking at the Slytherin table with a mixture of disgust and sadness. Dane gruffly grabbed Connor and pulled him into a quick hug, then pushed him towards the Slytherin table. Lily felt like crying. Dane was Connor's best friend, and had been there for him since he had been sorted. Connor, though handsome and strong, appeared weak and timid; although it has to be said that Connor was the most popular non-Gryffindor with the Gryffindor house, because the entire house took kind pity on him as a friend in need. Thankfully, all of them treated him like he was in their house. Connor even sat with the Gryffindor's during Qudditch matches, because no matter how much he loved to play, he refused to be on his house's team.

However, there was one thing that kept Connor going, and that was that there was a clause in the Hogwarts Enormously Long Rules Book, which stated that any student who has attended the school from their first to fourth year and was unhappy with their current house could be re-sorted. This time, Connor would be able to tell the hat that he wanted to be in Gryffindor.

Once everyone had been seated, the first years were ushered in. They were soaking wet and trembling. A few of them had large, silly grins on their faces (Harriet included).

As the first years walked up to the Sorting Hat, which was waiting on its stool next to McGonagall, Robby and Paul stood up and yelled through the silent hall, "Go Harriet!" They each gave a whooping cheer and sat down. The entire hall laughed, and Harriet, instead of blushing and looking embarrassed, waved and smiled at her brothers.

McGonagall cleared her throat and shot the boys a sharp look (Robby and Paul simply grinned and winked up at her), then looked out over the Grand Hall.

"Welcome, new students. And welcome back, old students! For some of you, today marks the magical journey with which you will embark on. I am not only speaking to the first years, but also to the seventh years. While some of you are thinking of your futures here at Hogwarts, others are thinking of their futures outside of Hogwarts."

"All I'm thinking about is dinner," whispered Paul to Robby.

"Yeah, that's all my stomach is thinking about too. Wish she'd just skip the speech and get on with the Sorting," Robby muttered, rubbing his stomach.

"…And so, let the Sorting begin!" said McGonagall. She sat down, and Professor Snape, who had been found innocent of being a Death Eater (he had, of course, been working with Dumbledore, and had actually helped the Order by killing him, though he had not wanted to) but was still prejudiced against all Weaselys, Potters, Longbottoms, and Lupins, stood up to read off the list of names.

"Armiette, Amy," was sorted into Ravenclaw, and her table welcomed her with loud cheers and whoops.

"Arru, Yanira," was sorted into Ravenclaw also.

The first Gryffindor was "Barnes, Dorian," and was greeted with not only tremulous applause but whispers of jealousy from the remaining first years. Obviously—though the Gryffindors knew this already—Gryffindor was the place to be, because of the fact that the most famous Gryffindors of all time, other than Godric himself—Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasely—had come from this house. And not only that, but their bloodlines were in that very same house.

Next was "Barow, Delia," who got sorted into Hufflepuff. "I'm so damn hungry!" Robby whispered harshly to Paul. The received a shushing noise from Ari, who was watching the sorting attentively.

Forty-five minutes later, "Zurai, Corbin" was sorted into Slytherin the minute the hat touched his head.

"FINALLY!" shouted Paul. He had the decency to look slightly embarrassed by his outburst when McGonagall shot him a very stern look.

"Let the feast begin!" called McGonagall to the students. And with that, food magically appeared on the house tables.

Lily eagerly spooned roasted potatoes, shepherd's pie, and bread onto her plate. Robby and Paul had loaded their plates so full of food that it was falling off the sides of their plates.

"Yuff noff fungry arff?" asked Robby to Ari, his mouth full of food.

"_Excuse _me?" Ari asked, disgusted. Robby swallowed with a large gulp.

"I said, are you not hungry, Ari?"

Ari glanced down at her plate of lettuce and spinach leaves, tomatoes, and carrots. "I'm a vegetarian, remember?" Ari received a blank look from Robby. She sighed. "It's a muggle thing. A vegetarian means that I don't eat meat."

Robby rewarded Ari with a look that most obviously said, "Freak." Ari shrugged and went back to her leaves and vegetables.

When dessert appeared, Lily looked around for her favorite dessert: Pumpkin Éclairs. Her end of the table seemed to be completely void of them, so she glanced down towards the other end of the table. Much to her delight, a platter of pumpkin éclairs was sitting towards the edge.

Lily excused herself and went to get the éclairs. As Lily stood up to leave, she noticed Michael at the Ravenclaw table. He was watching her walk past, and smiled when she caught his eye. Lily nearly tripped as she forced herself to smile back ("Smile back, you idiot, _smile back!_") and felt a hot, swooping sensation all the way down to her toes. She couldn't believe how lucky she was.

Even though Lily couldn't notice it, she had gotten prettier over the summer. Her reddish-brown hair had finally lost its frizziness, and even though it still hung in that messy, curly way, it had actually formed a shape (before it had been a cloud that reminded her vaguely of her Aunt Hermione's school pictures). She had also grown taller and thinned out (she had attributed her weight loss to the intense Qudditch practice she had done by herself while her brother was away), and _finally_, her freckles did not stand out as much as they used to. But Lily, being Lily, did not think any of this over.

As Lily walked down to the end of the table, her fellow Gryffindors parted as they leaned in and out of the table, talking and eating. Lily could recognize everyone…that is, until she reached the very end of the table.

Sitting away from everyone else—nobody sat in front of them, and nobody sat immediately next to them—was a Gryffindor that she had never seen. It was a girl, but there was something almost…inhumane about her.

It was obvious that she was unlike any other student. She sat perfectly straight and erect (so unlike the other Hogwarts students, her were constantly slouched over from the weight of books, or simply because they were tired), and was perfectly still. She was elegant and graceful just from sitting still, and Lily wondered how she walked. The girl's long hair hung straight and feathery down her back, and was the most interesting shade of red Lily had ever seen. It was certainly fiery, even more so than her mother's or Uncles' hair. Even the gold streaks in her hair—which looked like real strands of gold—were so unlike anything Lily had ever seen. And in front of this statue of a girl sat the platter of pumpkin éclairs.

"Excuse me? May I take these?" Lily inquired. The girl looked up at Lily, and Lily had to contain a gasp of breath. The girl's eyes were shocking metallic blue, with paleness swirling throughout them. Her face was angular and sharp, and at the same time was soft and peaceful. She was a living and breathing example of an oxymoron.

There was a small flash of something in the girl's eyes when she looked up at Lily, but Lily thought that she could have been imagining it.

"You may take them," responded the girl in a lilting, melodious voice. The music drifting through those four words caught Lily by surprise. Lily now had no doubt in her mind that there _was_ something inhumane about this girl.

"Thank-you very much. I'm Lily, by the way. Lily Potter." Lily held out her hand, knowing after years of experience that people generally stuck out their hands when they met the daughter of the famous Harry Potter. Surprisingly, the girl did not take it, but closed her eyes and nodded her head down slightly: The head version of a handshake. It was more like a bow than a shake, however.

The girl looked reluctant to answer, and then spoke with a slight frown on her face. "I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Lily Potter. I am Fiona Featherstone," she said quickly.

"Are you a new Gryffindor?" asked Lily, suddenly seized by what Erick had mentioned earlier, about there being another student waiting to get sorted.

"Yes, I am." Fiona said patiently. Then Fiona pointedly looked towards the platter of pumpkin éclairs, then back at Lily. Lily blushed, embarrassed. Obviously, Lily should have paid attention to Fiona's air of superiority (or inhumanness. Or both.) and simply taken the éclairs.

"Well, nice to meet you!" said Lily hurridly, and snatched of the platter of éclairs. She was back at her end of the table in an instant.

"What took you so long?" Ari asked.

"I, um, got stopped by Sirius at the end of the table. He wanted to know when I was sending my first owl to my parents, so he could send one too," Lily improvised.

Ari shrugged, uninterested. "I'll be sending my parents a letter the next time I remember to."

When everyone was fed and watered, they were dismissed to their dormitories. Ari, Thomas, and Lily shuffled out of the Great Hall, very full. Lily regretted the two éclairs she had eaten, seeing how big they were.

Lily strained her neck to look for the mysterious Fiona girl, but she had disappeared. There was the possibility that Fiona had gotten caught in the throng of people pushing each other out of the way to get to bed, but in a friendly way.

The threesome was among the first to reach the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Password?"

"I know what it is, a prefect told me," Lawrence Thomas said to the Fat Lady. "Chary!" (_On a side note, 'chary' was one of my vocabulary words this week. You will also see this word again, as a little hint!_)

The Fat Lady smiled, and with a "Welcome back," swung open her portrait.

The Gryffindor common room was as cozy and warm as ever. The old plushy chairs looked even more inviting with the rain pounding down outside.

"I am so bloody _tired_!" yawned Ari as she stretched her arms behind her. She continued to stretch until she was bending backwards and touching the ground.

"Ouch, Ari," moaned Thomas as he watched the limber Ari stretch her body like a piece of taffy.

"It doesn't hurt," Ari straightened up and shrugged. She turned to face Lily. "Shall we get up to our dorm?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty tired myself. Long day." Lily gave Ari a look, and arched her eyebrows at her. Ari gave a small grin back, and took a deep breath.

"'NIGHT, THOMAS!" the two girls cried as they flung their arms around their other best friend.

"Ahhh!!!" yelled Thomas. Ari and Lily knocked him over. Robby and Paul appeared over the threesome.

"Go find an empty classroom," they smirked as they loomed over them. Lily reached her foot out and hooked it behind Robby's knee, and jerked it forward.

"Arrrghh!!!" he cried, bringing Paul down with him.

Lily hurried to stand up. "You two! Go to your dorm and do this!" she laughed as the twins struggled against each other to stand up. Lily pulled Ari on to her feet, and after blowing kisses at Thomas, ran up the stairs to their room.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I really enjoyed writing it. After I get past the usual introduction, where they go through their arrival and the sorting, and then when they receive their class schedules, will you start to learn more. Such as more about the mysterious Fiona Featherstone, and some new characters! **


	5. Stupid Sniveling Slytherins

Well, I never got any feedback from you guys! Please start commenting! But since you didn't comment on my last chapter, I'll still put this up, whether you like it or not!

**Harry/Ginny: Lily and Sirius Potter**

**Ron/Hermione: Robby, Paul, and Harriet**

**Bill/Fleur: Lyla and Kasey**

**Lupin/Tonks: Arisilla (Ari)**

**Neville/Luna: Thomas**

**Fred/Angelina: Connor, Dana, and Kendall**

**George/Verity: Catherine, Dane, Kameron**

**Cho Chang/Divorced husband Michael Corner: Michael and Lin**

**Erick (son of a member in the Weird Sisters)**

**Fiona Featherstone: Mysterious new Gryffindor**

Anyway guys, I am way excited, because I finally finished this chapter. I had about 5 tests this week, so I had no time to work on it. I also had a concert last night and I got home really late.

Well, I hope you enjoy this new chapter! PLEASE let me know what you think of it! PRETTY pretty please with a Snitch on top?

Hehe.

Disclaimer: I am writing a book, and have been for several years now!

J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, just finished her book series.

So obviously, I am not the owner of Harry Potter, because I am still writing. Got it? Good.

Lily and Ari shared a dorm room with three other 3rd year girls. One was Ellie Aria, a small girl who was beautiful but oddly coloured. She had fair, pale skin, and blond hair that was practically white—even whiter than Draco's hair—and constantly shone as if light was trapped in her hair. Ellie was very coy and humble, which could be one of the reasons why so many guys in the school liked her.

The next girl was Lilac Finnegan, Lavender Brown and Seamus Finnegan's daughter. She was very tall for her age, rather annoying in the way she loved to gossip and giggle, and always wore her brown hair in two long plaits. Lily could tolerate Lilac more than Ari could, but sometimes Lilac's prying habits drove her insane.

The last girl was Charlotte Warrington. She was the first witch in her family, but took to Hogwarts like a duck to water. She brought along with her a vast collection of muggle books and knowledge, and an eagerness for learning all that Hogwarts could teach her. Thankfully, she did not frequently quote "Hogwarts: A History" like her Aunt Hermione was rumored to have done, but she did inject facts into conversations sometimes. She was highly intelligent, and very headstrong.

When Lily and Ari got upstairs, two of their roommates were missing, and one of them was already asleep in bed.

"Man, I'm so bloody tired!" Ari yawned and stretched. She threw herself on her bed.

"You're not even going to change?" Lily laughed quietly, so she wouldn't disturb her sleeping roommates.

"No…I don't feel like it." Ari mumbled from her pillow. "'Night Lily."

Lily glanced over at Ari, who had immediately fallen asleep. Ari was prone to doing whatever she pleased, whenever she pleased. If she wanted to fall asleep, then nothing in the wizarding world could stop her.

One of the beds in the room had a poster of a teenaged guy with naturally good looks. He was holding a basketball, and was surrounded by teammates, who were also rather good looking. They were all dressed in red, as was the girl who was standing only a little behind him.

The sleeping girl underneath the poster _had_ to be Lilac. She was the only witch Lily knew of at school who had unmoving pictures—_muggle_ pictures (even though Charlotte was a muggle, she had not brought any of her pictures with her). Plus, the faint snores emitting from underneath the blanket were characteristic of Lilac.

The other sleeping girl had a small gray kitten snoozing on her bedside table. The kitten was so scruffy and fluffy that it resembled a small dog. This was obviously Ellie's kitten, Orbit. The kitten's name came from Ellie's love of astronomy, which was evident from the pictures of comets, stars, and planets that twinkled down at Ellie from behind her bed.

Charlotte was nowhere in sight. In fact, the trunk at the foot of the empty bed was periwinkle blue, with golden swirls on it, instead of Charlotte's ancient dark green trunk.

Lily yawned, and ignored the mysterious new trunk. She climbed into her pajamas, crawled into bed, and was instantly asleep. She did not even hear her window open, then close, one hour later.

"WAKE…UP!!!!" Ari screamed from above Lily.

"S'what's wrong with bed?" Lily mumbled, pulling her pillow over her head. Her bed was rocking back and forth, like it was at sea.

"No pillows for YOU! Come on, its breakfast time!" Ari yanked the pillow away from Lily.

Lily sat up slowly, and rubbed her eyes. The bed was rocking because Ari was hopping up and down on her knees at the end of it.

"Stopppp Ari…" Lily trailed off as she noticed what was supposed to be Charlotte's bed at the end of the room. The bed sheets were twisted from somebody sleeping in them, and there was a half empty glass of water on the bedside table.

"Was Charlotte here?" Lily asked Ari. Ari stopped hopping and widened her eyes.

"Uh uh," she shook her head. "Nope, I never saw her." Ari slid off the bed and skipped over to the mirror.

_Bloody morning person_Lily thought to herself. Ari screwed up her eyes in concentration, and with a _pop_ noise, her feathery rock star hair was now long and streaked with blond. Bangs framed her face and chin, and fell in her eyes. "Like it?" She spun around for Lily.

"No, kind of boring," Lily told her wickedly, resting her chin in her hands.

Ari screwed up her eyes again, and with another _pop_, her hair was now half of the previous length, same hairstyle, and brown with bright blue streaks.

"Much better," Lily laughed. Ari waited impatiently for Lily to get dressed, tapping her foot and humming Weird Sisters' songs in a high-pitched tone. When Lily finished, the two girls headed downstairs, where Thomas was draped over an armchair.

"Finally!' he groaned. "My stomach is growling so loudly you'd think it was the giant squid making those noises!"

The threesome trooped downstairs, each a little tired, but excited about receiving their class schedules. They sat down for breakfast, surrounded by their friends, and dug into eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, pumpkin juice, and every other breakfast food imaginable.

"Schkan shu pash shee speffer?" Thomas asked Lily through a mouthful of food.

"What?" Lily asked, disgusted.

Thomas swallowed. "Can you pass the pepper? Please?" Lily grimaced and pushed a glass peppershaker in front of Thomas. Suddenly, there was a rushing flurry of noise above everyone's heads. Hundreds of owls swooped into the Great Hall, carrying notes and packages from parents to wish their children the best of luck on their first day.

Hathware, Lily's snowy white owl that resembled her father's ancient owl Hedwig, swooped in front of her.

"Hullo, hullo," Lily scratched her owls head, and bet her back. "What have you got for me?" Lily untied the letter attached to Hathware's leg and opened it.

_Dear Lily_ (the letter read)

_I know that you have heard this from me before, but when I was a student at Hogwarts, I always wished that I had parents that could send me a letter on my first day of school. It was a horrible feeling, knowing that after my parents, godfather, and headmaster died, I would never again receive any words of love or kindness. This is why I wanted to write to you, my loving daughter, so that you would always know that you have parents thinking of you every day. I hope your first day goes well, and that you don't get into _too_ much trouble. _

_Love,_

_Dad_

_Dear Lily_

_I miss you already, darling! The house is very quiet without you, and you know how much I can't stand the quiet in such a large house! But noises aside, I love you and I want you to have a wonderful first day—and third year—at Hogwarts. I know you will do well. You _are_ my daughter after all!_

_Love,_

_ Mum_

_p.s. Have some fun, I know it must be easy to sneak past the ancient Filch and even easier with the Marauders Map, but don't be too harsh on Malfoy. This is going to be an exciting year for you; I can feel it!_

Lily smiled and tucked the letter into her pocket. After dipping his beak into her goblet of pumpkin juice, Hathware took off for the Owlery.

Lily doubted it would be an exciting year. She longed for adventures like the ones her father had all throughout his Hogwarts days, but so far she had yet to come across a half-dead evil wizard, an animal that was actually a wizard, a long-lost godfather, or even a centaur. The hopes of having an adventure this year were pretty slim.

Suddenly, Ari nudged Lily out of her daydreams. "Oy, who's the chick with the fiery hair down at the end of the table?" Lily glanced down towards the end, already guessing who  
"the chick" was.

Fiona Featherstone was calmly eating her eggs and potatoes, oblivious to the commotion starting at the other end of the table.

"Who _is _that? A Gryffindor?" Thomas asked.

"We would only be so lucky!" Robby said at the same time Paul said, "She better be a Gryffindor!"

"She's really pretty," Lilac said jealously. "Her hair is amazing."

Even Sirius had noticed her. "Who is that?" he questioned Lawrence, who shrugged back.

"No idea mate, but I've never seen her before. I wonder who she is."

"Her name is Fiona Featherstone," Lily said aloud. Everyone swiveled in her direction.

"How'd you know that?" Robby and Paul asked angrily.

"We met last night. I don't really know much about her…" Lily trailed off, seeing as how everyone had started whispering down the table "Her name's Fiona."

Lily was about to stand up and go say hello to Fiona, but Professor Forte was starting to pass out the Gryffindor' class schedules. Professor Imogene Forte was the head of Gryffindor. She had replaced McGonagall when she became headmistress. McGonagall had been very picky about who was going to be in charge of Gryffindor, and had finally settled on her cousin, Imogene Forte, as the best candidate. Professor Forte was very much like McGonagall: though stiff, prim, and proper, she had loving admiration for her former house, and had a lot of love and pride for Gryffindor.

"Miss Potter," Professor Forte handed Lily her schedule. Lily scanned it.

"Looks good so far…we've got Herbology with the Hufflepuff's again, no surprise…and Divination is with Ravenclaw…oh no, we've got Potions AND Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins!" Lily exclaimed sadly.

"No, not again!" cried Ari. "I sent in a letter over the summer to Forte, telling her not to rope us in Defense Against the Dark Arts or Potions with the Slytherines!" Ari leapt out of her seat. "I'm going to go and have a word with her!" She dashed away down the table, where Forte was handing Dana and Kendall their schedules.

_Well, at least Connor has someone to sit with in Potions and D.A.D.A. now._ Lily thought to herself. She glanced over at the Slytherin table. Poor Connor was sitting by himself, absently playing with his fork.

"No go!" Ari exploded as she hurried over. "That dung for brains said that I couldn't affect the house scheduling!" she said furiously, plunging back into her breakfast. Through each bite, Thomas and Lily could hear her saying things like "Lousy" "Forte" "Stupid sniveling Slytherins" and "Not fair".

Though Lily was equally upset, she was however happy to see that Connor would be sharing two classes with her. No wait, three classes. Lily glanced back down at her schedule, and saw that the Slytherins had Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors.

"Well, come on, we've got double History of Magic," Thomas told the still-angry Ari and Lily.

"Oh great…" Ari started off on another strand of angry remarks, and accused Forte of being rather nasty things, the most harmless being "dung for brains." She also accused Professor Binns, who still taught History of Magic, of being an evil ghost who took pleasure in being mean and boring.

When the threesome reached the class, the Ravenclaws were already forming. Her cousin Kameron, a third year like Lily, broke away from his gaggle of friends to greet her.

"Hullo cousin," Kameron gave Lily a brief hug. "How was your summer?"

"Fairly boring. So, looking forward to an exciting History of Magic class?"

Kameron grimaced. "Not particularly, no." Suddenly, Kameron's eyes widened at the sight of something behind Lily. "Hey, who is that?" Lily turned around.

Fiona was standing quietly away from all of the students. "Be right back," Lily muttered to Kameron, and approached Fiona.

"Hey," Lily said to her, unsure of what to say other than, "So, you're a third year too?"

Fiona smiled slightly, and did not seem as stiff as she had the previous night. "Yes, that's right. A third year." She looked out over to the gaggle of students, her were now pushing and entering the classroom. "Shall we go in?"

"Hey Lily, saved you a seat!" Ari called to Lily as she entered the classroom. The small tables held two students each, and since there was an odd number, Thomas volunteered to sit alone so that he could scoot his desk closer to Ari and Lily's desk. Lily turned to Fiona.

"Would you like to sit with us?" she asked. Fiona shrugged, which Lily took as a yes, and led Fiona to Thomas's table. Thomas looked very excited as Fiona made her way over his table.

"Thomas I am Longbottom," he spoke in a rush, and then blushed as he realized what he had just said. "I mean, I am Thomas Longbottom."

"I'm Fiona Featherstone. Pleased to meet you." Fiona smiled and held out her hand. Blinking hard, Thomas took her hand and let Fiona do the shaking. He was far too dazed to actually notice how odd—and laughable—he was acting.

Lily and Ari clamped their hands over their mouths, snickering. Only when Ari let out a snort did Thomas snap back into reality.

"Arisilla Lupin, but my friends call me Ari." Ari nodded to Fiona.

"And you already know me," Lily concluded.

"Settle down class, settle down," Professor Binns had just floated into the classroom. He launched into a boring lecture that seemed to have been the continuation of his lecture from the previous year.

Thomas began taking notes—he loved History of Magic, for reasons that were unknown to his best friends—while Ari and Lily began to play Hangman on Lily's paper.

"_I am not going to let you copy my notes if you do this all year again!" _Thomas hissed to them. Lily and Ari rolled their eyes and then batted them at him until he gave them one last glare and went back to his notes.

Ari set her pencil down and reached into her bookbag, drawing out a piece of spare parchment.

_So, what's with this new girl?_ Ari wrote, and then slid it over to Lily.

_I don't really know. She's a bit off, don't you think?_ Lily wrote back.

_Yes, of course she seems off! Look at her now!_

Lily looked over at Fiona, who was staring down at her desk so intently it looked as if she could already do non-verbal spells, and was trying to shatter the desk into a million little pieces.

_Sure, she looks odd right now, but I'm sure if we got to know her she would be perfectly normal. I mean, if I hadn't known you before I came to Hogwarts, I would have thought that you were a strange, lonely person, Ari._

_And you don't believe this now? I am most definitely strange, how dare you hint that I am normal!_

Lily laughed and slid the parchment into her pocket. When it was finally time to go, Fiona was among the first to whisk out of the room.

"Not very friendly, is she?" Ari asked aloud.

"She is very pretty. It makes up for it." Thomas replied. Even though he had been very intent on his notes, the minute class was over he had watched Fiona leave the room with a wistful eye.

"Thomas, you are ridiculous!" Lily jokingly pushed him as the threesome left the room. They were heading towards their next class, Herbology, when Malfoy (Junior, of course) and his cronies stepped in front of Lily, Ari, and Thomas, stopping them in their tracks.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is again. Potty Jr., Wolf Girl, and Loonybottom!"

"_WOLF GIRL?"_ Ari screeched in laughter. "Wolf girl? That's the best you got?" She stepped forward and stomped on Malfoy's foot. "You idiot, I'm not even a werewolf! Get your facts straight before you go making nicknames up. And at least be fair and use my last name for a nickname. You used Lily and Thomas's last names, why can't you use mine?"

Malfoy looked stunned. He had not expected someone to tell him to change the nickname, instead of telling him to stop using it. He was very surprised that he had not affected Ari in a serious, negative way. He couldn't believe that she was treating this like a joke!

Malfoy snapped his jaw shut. "Well, I just thought you'd like to know, Potty Jr., that you're going to be wishing your father was here if that rumor becomes true."

"What rumor?" Lily asked, getting angry.

"_What rumor?"_ Malfoy mocked Lily, snickering. "Wouldn't you like to know? There's some talk about some things happening here at Hogwarts, but I'm not going to let you in on anything!" Malfoy sneered at Lily, Thomas, and Ari, then beckoned for his cronies to follow him. "You'll be sorry if it happens!" he called over his shoulder.

The threesome stood in silence, until the heard the signal to hurry to their next class. They raced along the corridor to the greenhouses. As the approached the entrance to Greenhouse 3, where most of their class had already assembled, Thomas asked Lily and Ari in a estranged and stunned voice, "What was _that_ about?"


	6. The Famous Potter

**Well, that last chapter was kind of long, huh? I wanted to stop myself at one point, because I prefer shorter chapters for fanfics, but I decided to keep going on it anyway.**

**So, I am thinking of writing a new HP fanfic. I love romance, and this story isn't going to get to its romantic peak until later, though there will be romance coming up. Don't forget about Michael Chang!**

**But I have always loved romances, especially ones about star-crossed lovers, or lovers who at first hate each other but then fall in love.**

**So, if you like my writing, let me know what you think about a more romantic story! Any ideas?**

_Disclaimer: I was unable to pronounce Hermione's name for the longest time. I thought that it was pronounced "Her-mee-own". Obviously, I am not J.K. Rowling, and therefore I don't own Harry Potter, because it would be stupid to create a character with a name its own creator could not pronounce._

_Get it? Good._

The third years' Herbology class was a lesson on Bubbleblia plants, which were bubble-shaped pulsating plants that, though they looked tough, exploded easily when prodded. There was a certain way to prod them, and the water-like substance that came out of the Bubbleblia plants smelled like soap and old flowers, called Bubbly Juice. When extracted the correct way, the Bubbly Juice could cure any type of body odor, be it from a mismatched spell or poisonous plants, to horrific sweat odors.

Lily never learned any of this on that first day of her third year of Herbology. She spent the entire lesson with her head in her hand, trying to interpret what Malfoy had meant. She was completely stumped. Unless he was trying to make some lousy student prank from the Slytherins sound like something much worse, Lily had no idea what it could be. There had been no recent sightings of Voldemort. Her father had killed him some twenty or so years ago. Though there were rumors of former Death Eaters, new Death Eaters, and the children of previous Death Eater's uprising, Lily had not heard much about it.

"Where were you that entire class?" Ari asked as she waved her hand in front of Lily's far-off eyes. They were leaving Greenhouse 3 and heading towards the Great Hall for lunch. "You didn't even laugh when Thomas, Mr. I-Can-Do-Anything-In-Herbology, prodded the Bubbleblia plant the wrong way and got old flower and soap water sprayed in his face!" Ari cackled. "He was choking on that stuff for five minutes!"

Lily glanced over at Thomas who, though he was glaring at Ari, could not form words because his throat was still sore form coming in contact with the Bubbly Juice. He was clutching his throat and glaring violently at Ari, who was dancing around with her hands clamped around her throat, laughing.

"Maybe you should go see Madame Pomfrey?" Lily asked Thomas. Thomas shook his head yes, and headed off in the opposite direction, towards the hospital wing.

"Why'd you make it worse on him? You know he loves showing off in that class; it's his best subject!" Lily asked Ari.

"Because that's exactly why! He thinks he's so smart, well, I make good marks also! He needs to air out that giant head of his, it's so filled with egotistical air!" Ari was getting angry now.

"Lovely use of metaphors," Lily muttered as they rounded the corner to the entrance of the Great Hall.

"Listen, Ari, I was trying to think of what Malfoy meant when he said I would be wishing my dad was here."

"Don't give it any more thought. Malfoy just wants to syke you out. It's his thing."

"Yeah, but he's never talked like this before. I think that maybe—OUCH!" Lily collided with something hard, and fell onto her back. She could hear the contents of her bookbag spill out over the floor.

"Here, let me help you up," a voice above Lily said. A warm hand clamped around Lily's own cold one, and she was pulled to a sitting position.

"Owww…" Lily rubbed her head in pain. She blinked rapidly, allowing her eyes to become more focused on the blurrish figure in front of her.

"You there, Lily?" asked the figure. He had a distinctly male voice…

Michael Chang swam into focus. He had a worried look on his face. "Gee, I'm sorry Lily. I didn't see you coming."

"It's okay, Michael," Lily started to blush, and began to search around her for her bookbag's contents.

"Here let me help you," Michael said, and the two collected everything together. Lily allowed Michael to pull her to her feet, and did not even think about protesting when Michael lingered on releasing her hand.

"Thanks," Lily said, looking up at Michael. He was so good-looking. Lily couldn't believe how lucky she was to run into him, and even more so to be asked _out_ by him.

"I'll just…um…oh, hey there, Lizzie!" Ari spotted Lizzie Macmillan, Hannah Abbot and Ernie Macmillan's daughter, who was a third year in Hufflepuff, and whom neither Ari nor Lily knew very well. "WAIT UP!" Ari dashed after a bewildered looking Lizzie, and the two entered the Great Hall together.

"So, how's your first day been?" Michael asked Lily.

"It's been…interesting," Lily responded, thinking of Fiona Featherstone and Malfoy's warning.

Michael laughed. "So listen, there is a Hogsmeade visit coming up right before Halloween, and since you can go now that you're a third year, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out together."

_Oh my gosh, now he's REALLY asking me out!_ Lily's insides screamed in joy. "Oh, uh, sure, that would be cool, I guess," Lily tried to say nonchalantly, and put her hand on a candelabra attached to the wall. Unfortunately, even though she was trying to appear casual, the candelabra broke off in her hand and flew to the floor, landing with a loud "THUD!"

"Miss Potter!" Professor Forte was coming up behind her with an appalled look on her face. "I am not sure if you intended to_ break school property_, but I can assure you that while this school is your home, you should treat it with more respect!" She bustled into the Great Hall with her nose in the air.

Lily and Michael looked at each other, and then burst into laughter. They clamped their hands over their mouths so that Professor Forte would not hear them.

As they walked into the Great Hall together, Michael asked Lily casually, "So, what's the deal with that new girl in Gryffindor?"

Lily sighed. She was getting sick of all this "new girl" talk. "Her name's Fiona Featherstone, and she just enrolled here. Why do you ask?"

Michael got a serious look on his face and stared straight ahead. "I don't like the looks of her."

Lily was surprised. "Why?"

"I don't know, she just…" Michael stopped walking and got a strange expression on his face. Lily saw that Fiona was a little ways from Ari and Thomas, her posture straight and proper. Fiona was watching Ari and Thomas eat, but the food on the plate in front of her was untouched. "She looks untrustworthy." Michael finished with an air of finality. "I'll see you later, Lily."

"Okay. Sure. See you later!" Lily smiled at Michael, who grinned back, and they went their separate ways to their tables.

"I'm starving!" Lily announced as she slid into a space near to Fiona.

"Well hurry up, Defense Against the Dark Arts starts in ten minutes!" Thomas told Lily. "You can't waste time, you need to get a good meal in so you can give your classes your full attention!" Ari glared quickly at Thomas, and then leaned forward towards Lily.

"Ignore him. That's not important. What's important is _did Michael Chang ask you out?_"

Lily gave a small, excited giggle, and leaned towards Ari. "Yes, yes, YES! He asked me to meet him on the Hogsmeade trip!"

Ari's face slipped for a moment, but she was quick to grin back. "I'm so happy for you! I only wish that the three of us would spend our first Hogsmeade trip together."

"Oh Ari, I'm so sorry! I'm sure that we can spend time together, I doubt that Michael and I will spend the entire trip together."

"How come I don't get an apology?" Thomas asked accusingly.

"Because," replied Ari smoothly, sliding back into her seat, "You could probably care less about whether or not Michael Chang asked Lily out."

"True, but Lily's my best friend also. I would care if she stopped hanging out with us to be with Chang," Thomas shot back.

"That's _not _going to happen," Lily assured her friends. "Look, I haven't even been on a date with him yet! Let's talk about something else. Like how about what Malfoy said in the corridor?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" Thomas exclaimed. "Yeah, so I think that—,"

"Can I join you?" Erick cut in, and slid into the seat next to Lily.

"Erick! I haven't seen you all day!" Thomas hastily reached across the table to smack hands Erick. Unfortunately in his effort to look cool, Thomas knocked over his goblet of pumpkin juice. The creamy liquid splashed Erick in the face, and some of it fell on Lily's robes.

"Yurck!" spluttered Erick, swiping his hands across his face.

"Here, let me help!" Ari said quickly, withdrawing her wand. "_Evanesco!"_ The pumpkin juice vanished from Lily's robes and Erick's face. Lily and Erick muttered their thanks.

"So, how are you liking Hogwarts so far?" Lily asked Erick. "Come to think of it, I don't even know what year you're in."

"Oh, sorry. I'm in fourth year. And thanks for asking. Hogwarts is great so far."

"Has anyone figured out who your mom is yet?" Ari asked.

Erick shook his head. "No, not yet. I have all my classes with Lyla, but thankfully she hasn't said anything yet." Erick laughed. "Although I'm sure it looks odd the way Lyla rushes to sit by me in every class, and laughs at everything I say."

"No, that's typical Lyla fashion anyway," giggled Lily.

The four headed out together and said their goodbyes when they reached the staircase.

"He's quite normal for having such a famous parent," Ari remarked as she waved at Erick.

"Is that some subtle way of saying that I am abnormal, because I have a famous parent?" Lily frowned and crossed her arms.

"Maybe," Ari gave Lily a sly smile.

When they reached their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, it was obvious that the Gryffindors and Slytherins were not happy to be sharing a class together. The two houses were huddled amongst themselves, and were a good distance away from each other. The Gryffindors were standing with their arms folded, shooting wary and angry looks at the Slytherins, who were standing as if they were preparing to attack the Gryffindors.

"Nice to see the house unity, at least," Thomas nodded at the close group of Gyffindors.

"I wonder who our new teacher is. I forgot to look for them at the Sorting feast yesterday, and today at breakfast and lunch," said Lily. The jinx upon the teaching post of Defense Against the Dark Arts had been broken after Voldemort had been defeated, but the Defense teacher from the previous years, Professor Ramwell, had been from America and had transferred back to his southern wizarding school in Texas: The Spindletop School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had been okay as far as Lily was concerned, but after hearing the stories about Dumbledore's Army and such from her father, Lily had been expecting someone more knowledgeable and interesting.

"What does it matter?" remarked Ari. "It's common knowledge that you're the best at Defense Against the Dark Arts in the entire school, with the exception of your brother. You knew more anti-jinxes than Ramwell and the headmistress combined in your first year here."

Lily looked flustered. "I'm not _that _great at it. You're exaggerating."

"Ari's right, you _are_ quite talented at Defense Against the Dark Arts," Thomas said a little angrily.

"Do I detect a note of jealousy?" Ari teased Thomas.

"There is no reason to be jealous of Lily's accomplishments. I was merely agreeing with what you said." Thomas replied indigently.

"_Sure_ you were. There's nothing wrong with being first in _almost_ every class," Ari stressed the 'almost'. Like it was common knowledge that Lily shone in Defense classes, it was common knowledge that Thomas was one of the brightest people in third year. Though he was a daydreamer like his mother, and a bit of a klutz like his father, Thomas' study habits were reminiscent of those like Hermione's had been.

Thomas was about to reply, when the classroom door swung open. When nobody stepped out to greet the class, the students took it as their cue to enter the classroom.

As they filed in, it became clear to the students that their new teacher was not only serious about their craft but also rather disorganized. The classroom was dimly lit, and there were piles of books; what appeared to be dark-wizard catching devices practically falling out of cupboards; papers and posters tacked to every wooden post, displaying pictures and sketches, messy notes, and foreign words; and a small cage on the floor near the front of the classroom. The cage held a snowy white bird that resembled a peacock, except that instead of tail feathers it had elegant pointed spears. It was walking around in its cage, watching the students curiously.

"Where d'you reckon the teacher is?" Thomas whispered as the threesome sat down at a table in the front row. Thomas' question was answered when the door at the top of the stairs in the back of the room—the teacher's living quarters—swung open and shut loudly. A tall man walked down the stairs, surveying the class.

"Oh wow…" Ari trailed off, wide-eyed.

The teacher was very tall and young, with long, unruly dark hair. Wiry silver glasses that looked as if they would break with the smallest touch were perched on his nose. He wore long, old robes in bright green with a paisley neckline. He looked a bit like a grasshopper that had fallen out of a dusty cupboard in an antique shop.

"He looks kind of familiar…" Lily whispered to Ari, frowning. "I'm sure I've seen him somewhere before." Ari nodded and turned to face the teacher.

"Good afternoon, class." The teacher nodded at the students, and went to perch on the edge of his desk. "My name is Professor Atley Trellum, and I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Trellum!" hissed Ari to Lily. "He's an Auror! I remember meeting him when I went to work with my mum."

Lily frowned and whispered back, "No, he's not. He works with the Auror department, but he's not an Auror. He does something else, something really important, but I can't remember what it is."

Professor Trellum was now talking about what they would be covering. "I plan on teaching you not just what's on the curriculum but things that many dark wizards have never even heard of." He stood up and began to slowly walk around the room. "I will even teach you potions and spells that are not even Ministry approved yet.

"Do you know what they are, sir?" asked Grant Rothen, a Gryffindor.

"Yes, of course I do. How else could I teach them to you?" smiled Professor Trellum. He went back to his desk and picked up the roll sheet. "Please raise your hand and tell me your favorite animal when I call your name."

Ari, Lily, and Thomas exchanged looks with each other. Favorite animals?

"Toads," said Thomas when his name was called. He had a toad named Theodora. Professor Trellum smiled.

"Arisilla Lupin?" he called, and looked up with an anticipating expression.

"Oi!" Ari threw her hand up in the air and slouched in her seat. Lily and Thomas laughed. "I like werewolves, even though they are only half-human. If you want me to say an actual animal, I like otters. And call me Ari, sir."

Professor Trellum laughed. "I take it you are Remus' daughter?" Ari nodded, happy to be noticed. "Yes, you can say werewolf, _Ari._"

When Professor Trellum called on Malfoy, Lily thought there was a flash of what looked like anger in his eyes, but it was hard to tell. Malfoy did not even say his favorite animal, but merely glared at the teacher.

After Rayna Perfusus was the seventh Slytherin to say,"I like snakes," Lily cleared her throat. Rayna Perfusus, a sour-faced pudgy girl with a pointy nose like a bird-of-prey's beak, always came before Lily when Slytherin shared a class with Gryffindor.

Professor Trellum looked down at his list. "Potter," he said with great interest. "Famous Potter. Lily Potter?" He looked up.

Lily's face flushed. Teachers had been excited to meet her before, but she had never been called _famous_. She raised her hand and said, "I like phoenixes."

Professor Trellum did something very odd. He shot a look at someone sitting to Lily's far left. Lily glanced over to where he had looked, but all she saw was Fiona sitting by herself next to the window. Professor Trellum cleared his throat.

"The phoenix is a beautiful animal, and holds a lot of significance in the study of the Dark Arts. It is also associated with the previous headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, the only person Lord Voldemort," everyone except for Lily and Ari shuddered, "every feared."

"Now, who can tell me what this animal is?" Professor Trellum gestured towards the white animal with the pointy tail feathers. The animal looked up at him with interest, then at the class.

"No idea!" called out Ari. Everyone laughed, including Professor Trellum.

"This is a Spear-Tailed Featherpeak. Her name is Viola. The feathers on the end of its tail are soft save for the points, which are razor sharp. But pointy feathers are not what makes the Featherpeak special." Professor Trellum bent over and unlocked the cage. Viola waddled out and went to stand next to him. Professor Trellum gently picked her up and set her on the desk.

"What makes a Featherpeak special is, if it detects that someone is in danger, it can cause whoever is pursuing you to forget about you, simply by the blink of its eye."

"Cool, I want one," Ari whispered to Lily.

Lily giggled. "How many dark wizards are after you?"

"Nah, not dark wizards, only Filch. It'd be nice to get away with my mischief." Ari winked.

"Sir, what are the pointed tail feathers for?" Thomas raised his hand.

Professor Trellum looked at Viola with a mixture of bewilderment and humor. "Actually, I have no idea." He laughed along with the class. "I'm not a Care of Magical Creatures teacher, you know. But Viola is nice to have around. She is very well behaved and requires no training. The only problem is those spear-like feathers…" he held up his right hand, which had a bandage wrapped around it.

When class ended, Ari shot out of the room ahead of her friends, muttering, "Loo break, see you in Potions." Thomas left also, trailing behind Fiona.

As Lily gathered up her things, Professor Trellum said, a grin in his voice, "So, you're Harry's daughter."

"Yes," Lily straightened up.

He smiled. "I was good friends with him at the Ministry, since I was constantly in the Auror office."

Lily cleared her throat. "Sir, may I ask, what exactly did you do at the Ministry?"

Professor Trellum looked around the classroom. Everyone had left for his or her next classes. With a small smile, he asked, "Can you keep a secret?"

Lily nodded. Professor Trellum leaned in towards Lily.

"I studied to be an Auror, but I preferred assisting them instead of actually being out there in the field, catching dark wizards."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I invent things, but it's more complicated than that. I create spells and curses and potions for the Aurors to fight with. I have a special permit that allows only myself and the Aurors to use them, _without_ Ministry approval. You'd best believe that the Death Eaters would have loved someone like me. But ever since the fall of Lord Voldemort, my services have not been in so much of a need, though there are still dark wizards out there." He glared suddenly. "The Ministry is full of a bunch of idiots. There are reports…anyway, they released me, and that's how I ended up here. They thought having me around was too much trouble."

"But sir, why work here? Wouldn't your talents be in better use with the Aurors, even though you don't work at the Ministry anymore?"

Professor Trellum smiled wryly. "No, a lot of the Aurors don't like me. They think a lot of my inventions are a little _too_ dark. But the Ministry contacted me immediately when I graduated from Hogwarts. Anyway, I decided that using my knowledge of the dark arts to teach students would be better spent." Professor Trellum did not look at all like he meant it.

"I must get to Potions!" Lily glanced at the clock. "Bye, Professor!"

"Good-bye, Lily Potter," Professor Trellum smiled back. But as Lily closed the door, she could swear that she heard him say to Viola darkly, "Don't worry, the Ministry will want me back soon enough."

_Okay, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! I worked for a long time on it, editing things and trying to decide if I wanted to use them or not. I almost gave something away, but I decided against it, so you should keep reading! And as always, PLEASE comment!!!_


	7. Nightmares in the Forest

**Hey everyone! I liked the last chapter a lot…I can only hope that you did also! _wink wink_**

**See, what took me so long to update were names. It is so difficult to create names for a story that somebody else created. I am trying very hard to stick with the kind of names that I thought JK Rowling would pick. For instance, some of my names are Latin, and the meanings of them are associated with their characters.**

**Note**: I noticed in the last chapter, after I had submitted it, that Thomas reappears from the infirmary and in the Great Hall without introduction. He just sort of…comes back. But in case you were wondering, Thomas left the infirmary feeling much better. He bumped into Moaning Myrtle on his way to lunch, and after a few minutes, he realized that they were soul mates. He quickly pledged his undying love for her, and the two of them made passionate love in one of the girls' bathroom stalls. Then he went to lunch.

JUST KIDDING!

**Disclaimer**_: My name is a nice name, but it is a little too English and proper for an American high school, even one as cool and unique as mine. So when the teachers call my name on the first day of school, I always correct them and tell them the name I would like to go by. And guess what? The name that I tell them is NOT JK Rowling! So obviously, I am not JK Rowling, and so obviously, I don't own Harry Potter._

_Get it? Good._

Lily met up with Ari and Thomas outside of the Potions dungeon. Ari was twirling her wand around like a baton, but had yet to notice that it was emitting sparks.

"Hey!" yelped Lilac Finnegan nearby as a few sparks flew onto her robes. She extinguished them with her wand and glared at Ari.

Thomas was staring off into the distance with an odd look on his face. Lily followed his gaze and saw Fiona staring innocently out of the window.

"Oi! Tom!" Lily waved her hand in front of Thomas' face.

"Huh?" he blinked rapidly, regaining focus. "Oh, hey Lils."

Lily shook her head. "Look, you've been staring at Fiona all day. Why don't you go and chat her up?"

"Really? You think I should?" Thomas asked in amazement.

Lily giggled. "You great idiot! Go talk to her before Vintigo greets us with her loveliness." She sighed and leaned against the wall, watching Thomas practically skip towards Fiona. To her left, Ari was waving her hands and looking frustrated as Lilac was now saying "And it's not _just_ you lighting my robes on fire. You also lit my duvet on fire at the end of last term from twirling your wand around!"

Ari stomped over to Lily, breathing heavily. "She drives me insane!" she huffed, her face red. Mumbling to herself, Ari absentmindedly pulled out her wand and began twirling it. Lilac immediately saw this, clomped over, snatched Ari's wand, and threw it on the ground.

"You'll set us all on fire if you keep doing that!" Lilac yelled dramatically. Ari was about to respond when, thankfully, the dungeon door swung open.

An emaciated woman stood in the doorway, regarding all of the assembled Gryffindors and Slytherins with a bored expression on her face. Professor Venity Vintigo was highly disliked by everyone, except for maybe the Slytherins, since they tended to like the teachers that everyone else hated.

Professor Vintigo had shiny black hair that hung in her face and was swept back in a slick tail, as if she could not decide on cutting her hair short and shaggy or keeping it long and one length. Lily and Ari suspected that Vintigo had not actually trimmed her hair, but had taken a wand and hacked off random parts of it without using a mirror or paying attention. She was pale and looked starved to death, which was no surprise because she never joined the rest of the school during meals, but preferred to lurk the hallways and her own room. She had an air of being born pretty but had let herself go to seed: her eyebrows were overgrown and bushy, her nails were short and uneven, and her lips were dry and cracked. But her humble—though at the same time eerie and frightening—appearance did not fool anyone.

"Into class, _now!_" she snapped to the students. Her eyes fell on Lily, and a malicious look spread across her face.

_Thanks again, Sirius_. Lily thought to herself. Lily and Sirius were quite possibly the most loathed students by Professor Vintigo, all thanks to Sirius and his attitude. When Sirius saw the parallels between his Potions teacher and his father's Potions teacher, Professor Snape, he had practically laughed aloud. He hated Vintigo automatically, but tried to hide it. When Vintigo learned who Sirius' father was, she quickly treated him worse than all of the other students. The reason for this was because the Vintigo's were an old, pureblood family that was closely related to the Gaunts, who were the direct line of Salazar Slytherin. But what was most interesting was the fact that the Vintigo family was even more closely related to the Prince family—Severus Snape's wizarding family. And so, Professor Vintigo automatically disliked Sirius Potter with a great passion. Sirius tried very hard to not make things worse on himself, but he finally cracked when Vintigo apparently knocked over his cauldron on purpose, earning him a failing mark that was a large part of his grade. He decided it would be sweet revenge to enchant a load of water balloons to hang in the ceiling of the dungeon, and fall on Vintigo when she entered the class. The entire class laughed hysterically, and Sirius, who stood tall and proud, earned himself two months of detention and 100 points from Gryffindor. He accepted his punishment with humility, as if he were accepting and award.

So thanks to Sirius, Lily received even wore treatment than she would actually have had.

Lily went to sit at table with Ari—who was still fuming over Lilac—and Thomas—who was gazing at the back of Fiona's head.

"Look at Vintigo," she whispered to Ari. Though the class had already settled and quieted, Vintigo was too intent on glaring at Lily. Lily glared back.

"Did you have a nice holiday, Professor Vintigo?" Ari yelled out. The class tittered, used to Ari and her outlandish behavior.

Vintigo snapped out of her angry trance, and regarded Ari with a cold, steely gaze.

"Do not display your buffoon manners to the rest of the class, idiot girl. And a point from Gryffindor for yelling."

"Thanks," Lily whispered to Ari, already sick to her stomach at the thought of a year of staring contests with Professor Vintigo. Ari had taken it upon herself in their first year to distract Vintigo if she looked ready to attack Lily.

Professor Vintigo did not give the usual "welcome back" and "you will be learning…this year" speech. Instead, she tapped her wand on the chalkboard. A series of complicated lines appeared.

"This year, I will have you all attempting difficult potions simultaneously. Some may take months, while others you will finish that very day. For the longer ones, I will be checking your progress frequently." She suddenly slapped her hand on her desk, causing some the contents on top to jump. The class did not flinch: they were used to this sudden, angry movement of hers.

"Any questions?" she sneered at the class, daring someone to complain. Even though Lily thought in her head that what she was asking the class was too much to ask of third years, she kept her mouth shut and glared at Vintigo.

"I will pass out your scrolls containing your potions. Once you have them, begin!"

When Professor Vintigo reached Lily, she stopped and stared at her for a long moment. "Let's see what I have for you, Potter…" Vintigo rifled through the scrolls she was holding. After a moment she pulled out a rather thick scroll and practically threw it at Lily. Thankfully, Lily had inherited her father's reflexes and caught the scroll neatly before it could slam her in the face.

"Thanks, Professor," Lily said, false sweetness dripping in her voice like syrup. She unrolled her scroll and glanced at the first potion.

"Veritaserum!" she groaned to herself. She scanned more of the scroll. "Polyjuice Potion? _The Draught of Living Death?"_ She looked up at her friends with a frightened expression. "I can't do any of these!"

Thomas took the scroll out of her hands briskly. "Nonsense, Vintigo wouldn't assign you those…oh," he muttered as he read the scroll. After a moment, he exclaimed, "_Wolfsbane Potion? _You've got to be kidding!"

Ari and Lily slapped their hands to their foreheads. "I can't do any of these!" Lily repeated, and threw herself on top of her desk. Ari patted her back consolidating way.

"Don't worry, we'll help you out. Right, Thomas?" Ari shot a look at Thomas, who was already reading his own scroll.

"Oh, er, right. Yes. Of course we'll help you," he said.

Lily decided to tackle Veritaserum first. But one glance at the first ingredient—hair of newt—sent shivers down her spine. Not that Lily was afraid of newt hair. It was merely the fact that she would be creating this incredibly difficult potion while her friends stood around her, brewing Hiccupping Solutions and calming potions. With a sigh, she returned to her scroll.

Half an hour later, Lily was stirring the beginning of her potion—a thick black paste—while reading her potions book. It said that by now the potion should have thinned out from the dragon talon dust she had just thrown in, but the paste seemed to be getting thicker and thicker.

Professor Vintigo was prowling the aisles, glancing into people's cauldrons. Naturally, Thomas had finished his potion, and Vintigo had only complained "There is far too much potion in your cauldron. Next time this happens, it'll be ten points from Gryffindor."

Ari's potion, which was supposed to be a Sleeping Solution, had made a small explosion in Ari's face. She had black smudges on her nose and smears on her face. She grinned through the black soot anyway.

"What on…I thought you were creating a Sleeping Solution!" Vintigo exclaimed in pure astonishment.

"Is that not what that is?" Ari peered into her cauldron. Sunny yellow liquid was bubbling merrily.

"No!" Vintigo yelled, still astonished. "You didn't create a Sleeping Solution; you created Sunup Potion! That's for waking people up, not putting them to sleep!" Professor Vintigo was so shocked at Ari's mistake that she completely forgot to yell at her or take off marks. She moved down the table towards Lily.

With a desperate attempt, Lily grabbed a vial of powdered ginger root and shook it in. The paste miraculously changed from thick paste to a water-like substance just as Vintigo approached it.

"Well," Vintigo looked into the cauldron. "I see that you did not get very far." Vintigo looked up with a vicious look in her gleaming eyes. "I see that you are already slacking off," she said softly. "I will have to take ten points from Gryffindor to teach you to take this class seriously."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!" Lily protested angrily. "I got about as far as I could get, it's such a difficult potion! It's N.E.W.T. level, and I'm not even old enough for  
O.W.L. level yet!"

"How dare you question my authority!" yelled Vintigo. Behind her, Lily saw Malfoy grinning at her, enjoying this exchange between Vintigo and Lily. "Another ten points from Gryffindor, and I am assigning you homework. Write me a detailed essay on the ways that Veritaserum changes consistency and color with each new ingredient, due next class."

Lily opened her mouth again, but Ari kicked her under the table.

"_Don't!"_ she hissed, waving her hands behind Vintigo. Lily glared but kept her mouth shut. She gritted her teeth and took her cauldron to the storage cabinet. After labeling it, she set it on the top shelf and packed up the rest of her things.

Wordlessly, she left the room, followed by a silent Ari and Thomas. The three trooped upstairs, each immersed in their own thoughts.

"I can't believe her!" Lily yelled suddenly as they passed a picture of a bunch of trolls trying to play the cello.

"I know, it's really unfair," Ari said soothingly.

"I mean, of course she's doing it on purpose, but there has to be some rule against a teacher purposely trying to fail you!" Lily continued angrily.

"Even if there was, Vintigo wouldn't care. She'd just go on treating you the way she always does," said Thomas. Somebody laughed behind Thomas. Lily turned around to see Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, and Rayna Perfusus close behind.

Lily whirled on Malfoy and opened her mouth, but Thomas grabbed her shoulder and spun her back around.

"Come on, it's not worth it. We're too close to Vintigo's classroom, and you know that any confrontation with Malfoy will end in disaster."

Lily gritted her teeth but heeded Thomas' words. She dug her fingernails into her palms and continued walking.

"Just one more class…" sighed Ari.

The final class of the day was Divination, which Lily hated almost as much as Potions. Ari, sadly, was very good at Divination, which prompted her to pay attention in the class. But luckily, Thomas thought the class a waste of time and chose to partner up with Lily so the two could make fun of the class together.

The Divination teacher for the third years was Firenze. Though he was handsome, Lily did not fawn over him the way that Lilac Finnegan did. The only thing she liked about the class was the classroom. She had to admit that being in a miniature forest at night while still being in the castle was pretty cool. And if she happened to fall asleep on the soft grass while staring up at the night sky, Firenze would not scold her. He would simply think of her as a simple human being with absolutely no self-reserve.

"Hello, Lily Potter," Firenze bowed his head to her as she entered the room. It was late afternoon in the classroom-sized forest, but the soft muted light had no effect on Lily. She was still seething from Potions.

She slouched over to the base of a tree at the back of the room along with Thomas. Ari shot them a look that clearly asked them to move towards the front, but Lily and Thomas put their bags down and stared indigently back at Ari.

"Fine…" Ari mumbled and threw her bag down next to a tree that was only a little bit farther up. Grant Rothen and Olivia Harrow, another Gryffindor third year, were already leaning against this tree. Grant and Olivia were Lily, Ari, and Thomas' favorite Gryffindors. To an outsider, they could be considered as good of friends to Lily, Ari, and Thomas as Neville and Luna were to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Hullo Olivia!" greeted Lily. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you all day."

Olivia had dark skin, black curly hair, and rosy cheeks that gave her a look like she was constantly in excitement.

"Lily, how nice to see you again! Good summer?" Olivia responded. "And you too, Ari!" Olivia shot a look to Thomas. "Oh, and hullo to you also, Thomas," she said in a quieter voice.

Ari and Lily traded looks with each other. They had their suspicions that Olivia had a crush on Thomas, but Thomas had yet to notice the suspected infatuations coming from Olivia.

Before Lily, Ari, and Thomas could answer, Grant broke into the conversation. "Hey you three! I am so excited for this year, it's going to be great!"

"I'm sure it…will be…exciting," Ari looked rather taken aback. "What's with the enthusiasm?"

Grant looked fit to burst. It was obvious that he had been waiting for one of them to ask him that. "Well, it's rather a secret, but I suppose I could tell you…" he gestured for Ari, Thomas, and Lily to lean closer. They did with expectant looks on their faces.

Grant looked around at the class, his light brown eyes burning behind his glasses. "Well, I overheard some of the ghosts talking on my way to Potions. And they were saying that there will be an end-of-term dance this year!"

"That's all?" Lily asked disappointedly. She had been expecting some incredible life-changing news, like another Tri-Wizard Tournament, or maybe the Chamber of Secrets being opened again.

"Yuck, a dance?" Ari said with disgust. She screwed up her eyes in agony. "I can't dance! This is an injustice! What about the poor witches and wizards that can't dance? Did the professors ever think of _them_?" Ari slammed her hand down on the grass. "I will be taking this up with Forte, mark my words!"

"I think a dance sounds nice…" Thomas was staring dreamily at Fiona Featherstone again, who was seated in front of Lily, Ari, and Thomas again.

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Olivia smiled shyly at Thomas, who ignored her by continuing stare at Fiona's "amazing hair."

"Class, lie down on your backs," began Firenze. The class did as he instructed. They could not contain their gasps when Firenze changed the room from day to night. Lily had to admit it was a beautiful sight.

"Observe the heavens. Notice that Saturn," Firenze gestured to a faraway shining dot, and the planet zoomed in closer towards the students, "is closer to the Earth more than it should be. Who can tell me why?"

Lily turned her head towards Ari, but Ari was still fuming over the idea of an end-of-term dance. When nobody answered, Firenze began to ramble about how he had expected nothing less of his students, but only because they were mere humans. It took a full ten minutes for him to finally explain why Saturn was an inch closer to the Earth than usual (or so Lily thought it looked).

Beside her, Thomas was struggling to stay awake and listen to the lesson. Lily could already hear the soft snores emitting from Grant Rothen, who like Lily found Divination a waste of time.

_Maybe I could close my eyes for just a second…_Lily thought to herself and lowered her heavy lids. _Why does this class have to be so boring? It's not my fault I want to sleep; it's Firenze's…I wonder if Michael likes Divination. _

Lily began to dream that Michael was whirling her around the Great Hall. It was the first day of school, and there were no Christmas decorations, but everyone was in dress robes. Even though Lily and Michael were dancing, everyone else was going about their business and ignoring them.

"Ari!" called Lily as she danced pass her. Ari grinned at Lily and changed her hair to green.

"I'm a Slytherin now!" yelled Ari to Professor Vintigo, who was leering expectantly. She was holding an armful of scrolls.

Lily decided that if Ari wanted to change her house, then so be it. In fact, it seemed like an entirely normal idea.

"Perhaps I should be in Ravenclaw now?" Lily asked Michael.

Michael laughed a rather sinister laugh but did not respond. Instead, he released Lily, and she spun towards the Gryffindor table. Robby and Paul were there, punching and slapping Connor Weasley's shoulders.

"He's a Hufflepuff now!" shouted Robby.

"Yeah, not a Gryffindor, but he's a little bit closer!" Paul also shouted. Beside Paul stood Olivia and Thomas, playing with a large toad and giggling.

Lily laughed loudly, feeling very excited. Suddenly, she felt a tug at her navel, and saw that Michael was there again, pulling her away from her fellow Gryffindors. He gave another dark laugh and did not say anything.

Something didn't feel right to Lily. "No, please, don't…!" Lily struggled to be free of Michael's grip. She felt herself being dragged away from her friends and family.

Lily felt herself being pulled into a darkness that had not been in the Great Hall before. She turned her body and tried to twist away, but she was only hurting herself and was no closer to being free of Michael.

"Michael!" gasped Lily. She felt herself slipping deeper into the swirling dark hole.

"Noooo!" bellowed a voice. Something seized Lily's flailing hand and wrenched her out of the darkness. White light burst around her, and she could swear that she saw the faint outline of a phoenix fly past her. The white light became brighter and brighter, and Lily could see someone standing over her, their bright red hair glaring and dancing in the light.

"It's okay," sang the figure. The last thing Lily saw before she screamed was swirling, calming blue smoke and something wet, metallic, and sweet upon her heart.

"Lily!" somebody slapped Lily's face. "Stop screaming!"

Lily opened her eyes, panting. Sweat dripped down her face; her robes were twisted and clung to her. She sat up slowly, breathing heavily.

Ari and Thomas were sitting in front of her with anxious and scared looks on their faces. It became evident that Ari had slapped Lily, because Thomas was holding down Lily's wrists.

"Did you have to slap me?" asked Lily groggily, feeling her heart slow down. She wrenched her hands from Thomas and brought a shaking white hand up to her face.

"You had a horrible nightmare, Lily," Olivia spoke next up, somewhere to Lily's right.

"You were screaming and twisting like crazy," Grant said, looking more in awe than shock.

"It was just a scary nightmare, no big deal," Lily said calmly, but shot a significant look to Ari and Thomas not to ask any questions until they were safely away from everyone else.

Firenze was standing calmly at the front of the class, watching her with a bored expression.

"Sorry 'bout that," Lily mumbled. "I didn't mean to interrupt the class."

Firenze nodded. "This nightmare happened for a reason. But only you will be able to tell what it means. Try to decipher it as soon as you can, but first you must open not only your mind, but your heart."

"Load of rubbish…" mumbled Thomas, shaking his head, but Lily instinctively raised her hand to her heart. The beating had slowed down, but something felt odd about it. It felt sweet and sad and melodic, far more than Lily could explain or put into words.

"Class is dismissed," Firenze said, and retreated away from the students.

Lily struggled to stand up, and gladly accepted her bag from Ari. Suddenly, she noticed somebody crouching behind a tree.

"You guys go ahead…I'll catch up…" Lily mumbled to her friends. She went over to the person hiding behind the tree.

"Fiona?" Lily gaped in amazement. Fiona did not look cool and collected as she usually did. Her hair was a mess, she was breathing rapidly, and her was face pale. "Are you okay?"

Fiona shook her head but whispered, "I'm fine." She looked up at Lily was the saddest eyes she had ever seen. "That was so close. Too close."

"What…?" Lily began, confused, but Fiona quickly stood up and silenced her.

"Thank you for your concern…I had a nightmare also. I was merely frightened, but I am fine now." Fiona brushed past Lily and left the room.

Lily was not convinced. If Fiona had had a nightmare, how had she moved to the other side of the room without stepping on anyone? Nobody had noticed her disappearance, and nobody had complained that somebody had trod on him or her.

Lily swung her bookbag across her shoulders and left the classroom to catch up with Fiona. But when she got outside, Fiona was nowhere in sight.

_Perhaps she went into the Great Hall_ Lily thought to herself and entered the Hall, which was right outside Firenze's first floor classroom. A quick scan of the Gryffindor table told Lily that Fiona was not present.

"Hey," Lily said to Ari and Thomas as she slid into her seat.

"Going to tell us what your little dream was about?" asked Thomas as he spooned shepherd's pie onto Lily's plate. "Eat up, you look as pale as death."

Lily quickly told Ari and Thomas about her dream, and then about her short meeting with Fiona. "And then she just disappeared. She moves very quickly; I was only a few paces behind her out of the classroom."

"I didn't hear or see Fiona having a nightmare," Ari said. "Maybe she was just frightened by your actions? It was a bit unnerving."

Lily shook her head. "I doubt it. Why would she have been such a mess when I found her? If I saw you screaming in your sleep, I wouldn't become pale, petrified, or weak. I would probably just _slap you in the face_."

"Apologies, mate," Ari blushed and began shoving carrots into her mouth.

"So that's another thing for you to worry about?" asked Thomas. "First, you have Malfoy's little 'warning.' Then you have Vintigo's new form of torture. Now you have this ridiculous nightmare and Fiona to think about." He shook his head. "Pretty eventful first day, don't you think?"

"Yes, interesting, isn't it?" Ari piped up, swallowing her carrots. "I mean, I wouldn't expect anything less out of Vintigo, but you have to admit that all the other stuff is unexpected. I wouldn't ponder so much on what Malfoy said though; he's probably just trying to syke you out."

"And don't worry about Fiona, either. Worry about all the homework you have to do for Vintigo," Thomas said sternly to Lily. "Trust me, there is probably nothing going on."

Lily sat there, unconvinced. She knew that there had to be something more to Malfoy's little comment earlier, just as there had to be something more to Fiona.

Later that night, when she was lying in her bed and listening to Lilac's snores, Lily realized that Charlotte's old bed was empty again.

**I hope you liked this chapter! I did not enjoy trying to work out the schedules for the students, but I felt that it was necessary. **

**I am almost 98 sure that you saw some parallels between the two Potions teachers, Professor Vintigo and Professor Snape. I had meant for another teacher to hate the Potters, but because of Snape I found that I disliked Potions class very much, and so it needed a sour teacher. Trust me, had Professor Vintigo been teaching the other class I had had in mind, she would not have seemed so much like Snape, while another teacher would have.**

**I will be introducing more new characters in the next chapter, because the next chapter contains:**

**QUDDITCH!**

**(I know you are just a _little_ curious to see if Lily and Sirius are even onthe team)**

**So please read, and as always: REVIEW!!!**


	8. The Brother's Keeper

**Before I start jabbering about the last chapter, I have some news I want to share. I just had this huge concert to prepare for—I play clarinet—where I would be all by myself in front of a ton of my friends, family, and strangers. Scariest thing ever, especially because I had to pick and prepare the music all by myself. And I ended up doing really, really well. I have been practicing for this recital since about last May, and it's finally done! So I am very, very happy and proud. Just thought I'd share that with you.**

**So, the last chapter. Actually, I have nothing to say about it because I already said what needed to be said at the end of the chapter. **

**Let's get ready for some Quidditch!**

_Disclaimer: So I mentioned my big recital, right? Well, I get horrible stage fright so to make me take my mind off of my nerves at school my brother gave me a huge stack of Sorcerer's Stone trivia cards. And even though I knew the spell that Ron thought would turn Scabbers yellow, I didn't know that the dwarf that was at the entrance of Gringott's was a head shorter than Harry! _

_So obviously, if I answered that the dwarf was three heads shorter than Harry, it proves that I am not JK Rowling, because then I wouldn't know the insignificant facts of my own book! This proves that I don't own Harry Potter._

_Get it? Good._

Lily had planned on waking up early to catch whoever was sleeping in Charlotte's old bed, but 7:00 on Tuesday morning was not early enough to catch them. When Lily sat up in bed, she saw the twisted covers and the trunk at the foot of the bed, but no body snoozing under the sheets.

That evening, Lily rushed through dinner so she could start on her History of Magic homework at the table. Ari and Thomas stared at her and dropped their mouths open; Ari didn't even notice that meat pasty had fallen out of her mouth.

"What in cauldrons name are you _doing_?" Robby gasped. He and Paul had also noticed Lily doubled over, intent on her homework.

"Homework, of course," muttered Lily, frowning. She couldn't remember where Uri the Ushering Troll had worked when he had overheard dark wizards in 1609 at a play plotting against the Minister of Magic, or why his earwax had come in handy.

"What's happened to my best friend?" Ari said sadly, lowering her head. Robby and Paul both bowed their heads and cried "Oh, what a tragic day!"

"Cut it out!" Lily yelled, jerking her head up. "I just want to get a leg up on my homework, so that when I fall behind I won't be _so_ far behind." She lowered her head back down and continued scribbling furiously. Ari, Robby, and Paul kept their heads lowered to hide the grins spreading up their faces.

When Lily had finished—though she had to admit she did not think her essay was very good—she excused herself from the Great Hall and went up to bed with her Potions book.

"Eight o'clock in the evening…and I'm sitting in bed, reading about Veritaserum…" Lily muttered to herself, shaking her head. She had not been trying to get ahead in school at dinner: She wanted to use the time to her advantage and get to her dorm as quickly as possible to catch whoever was sleeping in Charlotte's bed.

"There you are!" Ari said two hours later when she clambered into the room. "I've been doing my homework in the common room, thinking that you had maybe gone to the library or something. But you've been up here all along?"

"Of course," Lily said, not looking up from her book. She wanted to look like she was studying, but she was reading the same line over for the third time.

Ari shook her head. "I can't believe you're lying in bed, reading about potions." Ari sat down on Lily's bed. "I mean, I don't blame you. Vintigo was psycho to assign you all of those difficult potions. But still…it's kind of nerdy."

"I just want to be on top of things. I don't want to give Vintigo a reason to fail me. Trust me, I'm going to get these potions down."

"I know you can do it!" Ari said cheerfully. "And Thomas and I will be there to help! Well, Thomas will," she frowned. "I pretty much suck at Potions."

Lily laughed. "You don't suck! Although I can't really tell if you are good or bad at Potions. You created the complete opposite of the potion you should have been making earlier!"

"Yeah, well like I said, Thomas can help. I'll probably just end up doing the opposite and get you failed," Ari said cheerfully. She stood up and stretched. "I'm going to sleep. I do better rushing to do homework in the morning than staying up the night before."

Lily picked up her book and started reading again. In a matter of minutes Ari was tucked into her bed.

"'Night, Lils," Ari mumbled under her pillows.

"'Night, Ari," Lily yawned. Ari fell asleep instantly.

Lily was determined to stay awake as long as possible so she could catch her mysterious new roommate, but the Potions book was only making her sleepy. When Ellie Aria came into the room nearly half of an hour later, Lily was only five pages farther along. An hour later, Lilac Finnegan came into the room and threw herself on her bed.

By midnight, Lily's eyelids were drooping. She had completely discarded her Potions book (it had been thrown to the end of her bed at some point). Orbit, Ellie Aria's kitten, had curled up on one of Lily's pillows. Orbit nudged Lily with his head every time she started to drift off to sleep.

"Justdropit…" Lily slurred, her head lolling onto her shoulder. She sagged against her pillows. "Orbit…nomore nudgies…" and with a sigh, Lily began to fall asleep. But right before she entered the deep, dark, and dreamless part of sleep, Lily fluttered her eyelids and could have sworn she saw a phoenix swooping around outside of her window.

The next morning, Lily was disappointed to see that Charlotte's old bed was empty, but that there had been obvious signs of use. Lily watched the bed until she became sleepy and woke up to find it empty for the next week. Though she was disappointed, she was at least getting more homework done.

"I am in shock!" Ari exclaimed Friday evening at dinner. "You have turned over a new leaf."

Lily had still not confided in Ari or Thomas about the empty bed, but was curious as to why Ari, Lilac, and Ellie had yet to notice the empty bed. There had been a moment on Wednesday when Ellie had asked about the empty bed, but Lilac and Ari brushed it aside with disinterest.

"'Tis a sad day for our favorite cousin," Robby said mournfully. He and Paul had their clasped hands and were looking up at the enchanted ceiling dramatically.

"She has become more like our mother than her own sons have," Paul looked close to tears.

"Oh, knock it off!" their young sister Harriet said as she walked up behind them with her dinner plate.

"Nice of you to join us, Harriet," Robby said sarcastically as Harriet slid in between her twin brothers.

"Well, I've hardly seen you all week," she shrugged.

"Have you made any new friends?" Lily asked, a little embarrassed. She had meant to keep a better eye on her young cousin since she was a first year.

"Yeah, a few."

"And how are your classes?" Thomas asked Harriet.

Harriet wrinkled her nose. "They're okay, but I absolutely loathe my Potions teacher!"

"No surprise," Robby, Paul, Lily, and Ari said at the same time. They laughed together.

"You're a Weasely. That's almost as bad as being a Potter," Sirius had heard the laughter and come over. He and Lily laughed together darkly.

"Hey, Lily, can I talk to you a second?" Sirius asked.

"Sure," Lily shot Ari and Thomas a look. Sirius hardly ever sought out Lily privately.

"What is it?" Lily asked as they moved to the end of the table, a little ways away from Fiona Featherstone, who was eating alone again.

Sirius looked around. "First, I heard about Vintigo. That's really harsh, but don't let her get to you."

Lily crossed her arms. "I don't need your help! Since when have you offered me any advice?"

"Since I saw that you were being treated unfairly for my actions."

"Oh, taking a leaf out of dad's book? Trying to be more _noble_?"

"Just shut up! I'm trying to tell you something!" Sirius hissed angrily.

Lily softened slightly and placed her hands on her hips. "Well, go ahead."

"Look, Vintigo is not your only problem. I heard Michael Chang was chatting you up."

"Who told you that?" Lily fired up.

"That's not important. I don't trust Chang."

Lily gave Sirius a sarcastic smile. "Well, it's a good thing I don't value your opinion!" Lily flounced away from her brother.

"Lily, wait!" Sirius called, but Lily ignored him.

"What'd Sirius want?" Ari whispered when Lily sat back down.

"He doesn't trust Chang. He was about—"

"Lily!" Sirius came up behind her. "I'm not finished."

Lily was about to respond when Robby, who had just been chatting with Paul, turned towards Sirius and asked, "So, know what tomorrow is?"

Sirius opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Saturday?"

"Exactly!" Robby and Paul exclaimed.

Sirius looked amused. "So?"

"_So_?" Paul mimicked Sirius while Robby said, "It's Quidditch tryouts!"

Someone kicked Lily under the table. Ari was giving Lily a significant look.

"We heard you got Captain!" Paul said.

"So do we have to try out again? Robby fluttered his eyelashes and stuck out his lower lip.

"Nah, nobody will show up to try for Beater if they know you both will be there," Sirius grinned. "I am convinced that you both should have been born to Uncle Fred or Uncle George. You are the best the schools seen since our uncles played. And anyway, I am not going to make anyone who was previously on the team fly again unless someone shows up to challenge them."

"Why are the tryouts so early if the season doesn't begin until November?" Ari wondered.

"I wanted to get the team assembled right away so we can begin early training. It's never to early to start practicing," Sirius replied matter-of-factly.

"So what positions are you looking for?" Thomas asked. Thomas wasn't very good at flying, but he loved to watch Quidditch and was an avid supporter.

"The team needs a new Chaser and a new Keeper," Sirius said. "I also want an alternate for the Seeker position."

Robby, Paul, and Sirius talked Quidditch for a little while longer. Lily kept her mouth shut and did not join in. She ignored Ari kicking her every so often. Finally, Ari decided to take control.

"So, know who's going to go for Keeper?" Ari butted into the conversation.

"I heard Paisley Jargon wanted to," Robby said. "Also Ethan Tremaine and Jonathan Fleet."

"Ethan?" Thomas exclaimed. "He's a third year with us. I've seen him fly before, he's not that great."

"Well, Paisley is really good. She's also really hot," Paul said and looked down the table at the fifth year. Paisley had long blonde hair and big blue eyes, but Lily didn't like her very much. She always talked down to Lily and Ari like she was better than them.

"And Jonathan is really good at Chaser, but he really wants to play Keeper," Robby said.

"Hey, I think you're forgetting about someone named—"

"Ari!" Lily cut it with a loud, nervous laugh. "I just saw Rayna Perfusus laughing at your hair!"

"She's just jealous!" Ari shouted and stood up abruptly, sending her fork flying into the air. She stomped over to the Slytherin table and stood in front of Rayna, who had been staring at Malfoy with a dreamy expression on her face.

"Ha!" Ari closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. With a "poof!" her hair turned into the same greasy hairstyle as Rayna's.

"How do you like me now?" Ari yelled at a bewildered Rayna. "HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?"

"I don't like you at all!" Rayna snapped, clearly taken aback by Ari's behavior.

"Good, I don't like you either!" Ari shouted as she changed her hair back to the brown and blue-streaked locks she had before. She stomped back to her friends and sat down with a huff. Neither Robby, Paul, Thomas, Sirius, Harriet, nor Lily was surprised by Ari's reaction to Lily's comment.

Lily sighed in relief. Ari had completely forgotten about Keeper tryouts and was babbling angrily about Rayna Perfusus and that she was out to get her.

In bed that night—and yes, Charlotte's old bed was still empty—Lily lay awake, staring at her bed hangings, trying to suppress the bubbling anxiety in her stomach. Only Ari knew her secret: Lily desired to be the Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Lily knew that she could never be Seeker while Sirius was Seeker however, so she had settled for Keeper. She was an excellent Seeker, but she was extraordinary at every position.

Sirius had no idea that she could fly. Robby and Paul had had their suspicions before when they had played Quidditch, but Sirius had always been completely oblivious.

The next morning, Lily was upset to see that she had missed her mysterious fourth roommate yet again, but she was not as upset as usual. She had more important things on her mind.

"Ari!" Lily whispered to her snoozing friend. "Ari, wakeup!" She shook Ari, who simply rolled onto her side and mumbled.

Lily heaved a great sigh, and leaned over to Ari's nightstand. She picked up a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"Oh well, I guess I'll just eat these Every Flavor Beans since Ari is too busy to," Lily shook the box in Ari's ear.

"Oh no you don't!" Ari yelled and shot up. She snatched the box from Lily's hand. Ari was quite particular to her candy.

"Ari, I have to tell you something!" Lily said anxiously.

Ari glanced outside. "The sun's not even up yet! It must be about five in the morning!" She shook her box of Every Flavor Beans into her hand and popped some in her mouth. "Ew gross: grass, raspberry, and tomato soup. Not the best combination."

"Ari, I have decided to try for Keeper!" Lily could not contain herself.

Obviously, neither could Ari. "HOLY MERLIN'S BEARD! You're going to do it?"

Lily half smiled, half grimaced. "Yes, I think so."

Ari looked beyond pleased. "Oh Lily, I'm so excited for you! But you don't have a broom."

Lily pointed to the space under her bed. "I forgot to tell you. My mum bought me a broom without telling my dad. You know how he gets about Quidditch, and I didn't want him to get high hopes about me making the team."

"What kind did you get?"

Lily smiled widely and stood up. She gestured dramatically and spoke in great vibrato, "From the creators of the fastest racing broom in the world—the Firebolt—comes their latest creation: The Lightener!"

Ari gasped. "You got a Lightener? That's only the most amazing broom in the wizarding world! It's even better than a Firebolt!"

"I know, I know. I planned on getting a Firebolt 770, the latest Firebolt model, but they sent a prototype of the Lightener to my dad since he was the most famous Firebolt user ever. My mum told my dad not to show it to Sirius because they had just spent money on a new broom for him and didn't want him to ask for yet another broom. So my mum went to Diagon Alley and bought the Lightener for me. It was the only one in the store!"

"That is so cool, you have to let me try it out!" Ari said gleefully.

"Yeah, I will…after Quidditch tryouts." Lily said painfully. "I wish I could be Seeker."

"Don't worry, you'll do great," Ari patted her arm reassuringly. "Come on, let's get dressed and head down to breakfast early." Ari glanced out the window. It was starting to drizzle. "We don't want you flying in poor conditions on an empty stomach!"

Lily thought she would be very lucky if she could even hold her food down, let alone put it in her mouth.

"Fancy watching the Quidditch tryouts?" Thomas asked Ari and Lily at breakfast. He had loaded his plate up with sausages, eggs, kipper, bacon, ham, and cheese; Lily looked ready to be sick at the amount of food Thomas was eating.

"How do you retain such a lean body?" Ari asked in amazement.

"Simple trick," Thomas grinned slyly. "I stay in shape."

"No you don't," Lily couldn't help but inject.

"Yes I do. What am I doing early in the morning? Transforming the Room of Requirement into my personal workout room!" Thomas winked.

"Pathetic!" Ari snickered.

"So, fancy watching the Quidditch tryouts?" Thomas repeated while throwing a piece of bacon at Ari.

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" Ari exclaimed as she threw a biscuit at Thomas. "You go ahead down to the pitch in a bit. Lily and I have something to attend to first."

"Why did you tell him to go?" Lily hissed at Ari when Thomas left ten minutes later.

"Lily, if you make the team, you're going to have to fly in front of your friends sooner or later. Got your broom? Good, let's head down to the pitch!"

Lily felt nauseated. It wasn't so much her fear of flying in front of her friends than it was flying in front of her brother. What if Sirius turned his own sister down? What if Lily didn't live up to the Potter/Weasely reputation as a fabulous Quidditch player? Not only were Sirius, Robby, and Paul on the Gryffindor team, but also her cousin Kameron played Chaser and her cousin Catherine played Beater for the Raveclaws. Her cousin Connor even played Keeper for Slytherin.

None of Lily's other relatives had auditioned for Quidditch positions. Dana was too busy with her Charms Club and the incredibly intelligent though seemingly lazy Dane was the founder and highest-ranking member of the school's Mock Wizengamot club. Harriet was too young, and everyone else had no interest in trying out.

"I wonder what Sirius will say when he sees you there for tryouts," Ari was grinning. "Oh, the look on his face will be priceless! He doesn't even know that you can fly!"

"He knows I can fly, just not very well…" Lily suddenly went very pale.

"You can do this! It's in your blood!" Ari pat her best friend reassuringly on her shoulder.

They reached the Quidditch pitch. Lily hid her broom behind her back before heading down to the field. There was a small number of Gryffindor's and die-hard Quidditch fans from other houses sitting in the stands. Members of other teams were also there, most likely to scope out the competition. The Quidditch team for Gryffindor was assembled on the field.

Robby and Paul were running around with sticks, banging people on their arms and heads.

"I'm a Beater!" Lily heard Paul yell to a girl who was torn between laughing and yelling at him for hitting her head.

The two Chasers already on the team had shouldered their brooms and were standing on either side of Sirius, who was holding a clipboard. One was a fourth year named Abby Yardley, and the other was Tessa Oakes, a sixth year. Both had been on the team since their second year when the two previous Chasers—who were twin brother and sister—graduated.

"Will everyone trying out for the position of Chaser please come forward?" Sirius called out. He looked menacing, and his naturally handsome features only made him look even more superior then usual.

A gaggled of Gryffindors stepped forward. Lily went to the edge of the pitch, a few feet away from the small group of people auditioning for Keeper, including Paisley Jargon, Ethan Tremaine, and Jonathan Fleet.

"When I call your name, please mount your broom and fly into the air," Sirius called. He glanced down at his clipboard. "Darrel Partway, you're up first!"

Darrel Partway rose into the air. Sirius turned to his two Chasers and nodded at them. They mounted their brooms and rose after Darrel.

"I want to see how well you can handle the Quaffle and how well you work with Abby and Tessa. They will start off by passing you the Quaffle while you fly around the pitch—easy enough. Then when I blow my whistle, they will begin to fly into more difficult formations, and it will be up to you to follow continue passing the Quaffle," Sirius shouted up to the three Gryffindor's in the air.

Darrel Partway started out fine, but when Sirius blew his whistle he began to fumble with the Quaffle. He found it difficult to stay on his broom without holding onto the handle.

The next two Chasers were horrible, but the third Chaser was hilarious. It was a fourth sixth year boy who obviously thought that he was far better than he actually was. He had decided that when the formations became harder it was time to start showing off. He made elaborate dives and circles that nearly sent him flying into Abby and Tessa. He stood on his broom handle—though nobody was entirely sure why—and ran into a goal post. When he got the Quaffle, he refused to hold it under his arm or another suitable place, instead trying to balance it in one outstretched hand.

"Next!" Sirius bellowed. He had endured the agony of the sixth year long enough.

Three Chasers later and Sirius decided on Elliot Brett, a fifth year and friend of Sirius'. But in all fairness, Elliot had flown better than everyone else and was very good at making decisions on what to do next, based on where Abby and Tessa were positioned.

"And now, Keeper tryouts!" Sirius called. He glanced down at his list. With a jolt, Lily realized that Sirius had probably not even looked at the list yet, and had no idea that Lily had signed up.

"When I call your name, mount your brooms and fly over to the goalposts. The position of Keeper will be determined by who can block the most goals out of five tries from our three Chasers. First up is Ethan Tremaine!"

Ethan only blocked three goals, one of which earned him a broken nose when he blocked the Quaffle with his face accidentally. Jonathan Fleet was two Keepers later, and blocked three goals also. Paisley Jargon, who had to watch four people fly before her, blocked four goals. She was the first one to block so many, and everyone applauded her when she hit the ground.

Sirius grinned at Paisley. "Terrific job!" he said happily. Ethan Tremaine and Jonathan Fleet were shooting daggers at Paisley, and both looked very sour as they shouldered their brooms and headed into the stands to continue watching the tryouts.

Sirius glanced down at his clipboard, still grinning. "Up next is…" Sirius' eyes grew large, and a frown began to form on his face. He looked up from his clipboard and searched around until his eyes fell on Lily.

There was a mixture of anger and bewilderment on his face. As he stared at her, Robby and Paul came up behind him and looked over his shoulder.

"HA!" yelled Robby.

"Excellent!" Paul laughed. "Lily Potter, mount your broom!"

"I'm the Captain; I give the orders!" Sirius bellowed and jogged over to Lily. "What's the meaning of this?" he said softly. "Is this some kind of _joke_?"

"No, it's not!" Lily's voice quavered. She had never seen her brother look so angry with her before. "Honest!"

Sirius looked undecided. He shook his head and walked away from her, calling over his shoulder, "Fine, mount your broom."

As Lily rose into the air, she could see Robby and Paul grinning up at her. Sirius had folded his arms and now had a blank look on his face.

_I can do this_ Lily thought to herself as she flew in front of the goalposts. The three Chasers began to fly towards her, passing the Quaffle between them.

Lily shut her eyes and imagined herself in Robby and Paul's garden, playing Quidditch with them. She quickly opened her eyes, suddenly braver. _I can do this. Just watch, Sirius. I'll prove to you that I am just as good as you are_.

The Quaffle flew towards her, and Lily calmly stretched out her hands and caught it neatly between them. Cheers rose from the stands. The next time, Lily barely had to move her broom to catch it. More cheers met her ears.

"The next one will be harder," Tessa said cheerfully as Lily threw her the Quaffle. "This is too easy for you!"

Indeed, the next one required Lily to swoop upward. Tessa was known for being able to curve a ball to make it almost impossible to tell whether it was going to go up or down. But nevertheless, Lily caught it in one hand.

The next one was even harder. Lily did not catch it in time, but was able to hit the tail of her broom against it and send it flying past the Chasers. "Nice save!" yelled Abby. "One more and you make the team!"

Lily began to feel nervous again. Abby and Tessa put all of their strength and skills into this last one. Lily swooped and turned her broom, trying to protect her goalposts, but Tessa and Abby were too good. Lily saw that the Quaffle was going to go through the goalpost farthest right, and she was in front of the one farther left.

A moment of inspiration dawned on her. Desperately, Lily threw herself almost entirely off of her broom, while keeping her right foot hooked under the handle so she could drag it behind her. She swung it underneath her and brought it to her hands. With all of her strength, she swung her broom at the Quaffle and hit it away from the goalpost. Her next move would have been to grab the goalpost and remount her broom, but Lily felt herself falling away from it. Still holding her broom, Lily brought it underneath her again and mounted it in the air as she fell towards the ground.

Huge cheers rose from the stands. Lily could hear Ari's high-pitched screams above everyone else, which sounded as if they belonged to a banshee.

"Nicely done!" Paul patted Lily's back as she landed.

"Yeah, it's about time you tried out! I bet you could've made Keeper your first year," Robby laughed. He leaned in towards Lily and whispered quietly, "Don't worry, you'll be Seeker once Sirius leaves."

"Congratulations, Lily," Sirius came up to his sister. Everyone quieted and looked at the Potter siblings. Sirius looked apologetic. "I had no idea…you could fly so well," he choked. "You're our new Keeper."

"AWWWW!!!!" Robby and Paul bellowed. And with that, they grabbed Lily's hands and began to dance around in a circle with her, singing, "Lily is the Keeper, Lily is the Keeper! Everyone else who tried out is upset, 'cause Lily blocked more goals than them!"

Ari came skipping up to Lily and gave her a huge hug. She took Lily's place with Robby and Paul and sang with them, "Lily Potter's our Keeper, Lily Potter's our Keeper. Slytherins, you best watch out, 'cause you'll never score AGAIN!"

**Now, that was a fun little chapter! Well, I don't know about _little_. This chapter had almost 5,000 words! Though the last chapter came even closer. I guess I was wrong about liking shorter chapters, faster. The way I see it is, the longer the chapter, the less anxious someone who has added me to story alert or favorites will be. Now, you can enjoy more!**

**This chapter was delightful to write. I just had my big recital, and this, in a way, was Lily's recital. Except that my brother already knew that I was talented. **

**_p.s. Just a warning:_ In the next chapter, I will be skipping days a lot instead of going from day-to-day. It would be a waste of time to explain what happens every single day, and I would much rather get to the important stuff than keep you waiting! But of course, it will be just as long, descriptive, and awesome as before.**

**PLEASE COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!**


	9. The Empty Bed Situation

**So hey guys. I was pretty bummed out about this next chapter. We had a power outage—thanks to a really bad storm—that knocked out my laptop and deleted part of this chapter. I stupidly had left the story up on my screen, unsaved, and forgot to come in my room and turn off my laptop when the power switched off. In conclusion, MacBooks, be it a Pro or not, shut off after about three hours time. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy.**

**I hope everyone else who is on spring break is doing well. If you aren't on spring break yet, well, I'm very sorry. But it will come soon enough!**

_Disclaimer: I am so excited. I finally reserved my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Borders! But I realized that I was not JK Rowling when the guy at the checkout asked me my name. Obviously, if I had written Harry Potter or owned any part of it, the guy would have known that my name was JK Rowling. So obviously, I am not JK Rowling, and so Harry Potter is not mine. Get it? Good._

_Ps. Thank you Gryffindor777 for being so awesome! You always leave me nice comments and tips about for my fic. You are basically my favorite person on this website._

There was much excitement in the school after Lily had been made the Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Some of the excitement came from her own house: Many were happy that another Potter was placed on the team, because Potter spelled "excellence" and "superior quidditch skills" in there books. A few in the house—though a very small few—thought that perhaps Sirius would have let Lily on the team no matter what, simply because she was his little sister. Obviously, those people did not know how well Lily and Sirius got along: Not very well.

Other houses were sharing in the excitement. Naturally, the Slytherins began to pass rumors that Lily had only been placed on the team because she was Sirius' sister, and that Lily was truly awful. The only Slytherin who was happy for Lily was her cousin Connor, who whispered to Lily before Defense Against the Dark Arts class a few days after her tryout that he was happy for her.

The Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs were having mixed emotions. They would much rather not see another Potter on the Gryffindor team. The best flying since Harry Potter himself was seen when Sirius played, and thanks to his Seeking skills Gryffindor had yet to lose the House Cup. On the other hand, they did not mind Lily being on the team because Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs tended to get along fairly well with Gryffindors.

And so the news spread throughout the school. Lily, who was unused to any rumors about her, was surprisingly okay with Slytherins whispering about the reason she had been made Keeper.

_Let them believe what they want_ she thought to herself as she passed a group of Slytherin girls containing Rayna Perfusus. _They'll see that I'm just as good as Sirius, my mum, and my dad when I fly in the first match_.

Also on the Slytherin list was Malfoy and his posse of menacing wannabe Death Eaters. Every time Lily passed Malfoy, he mimicked crying like a baby, or calling for Lily's dad. It drove Lily crazy, because she had no idea why he was doing this. Usually he couldn't keep his mouth shut, but it seemed as if he was not in a position to give Lily any clues.

Speaking of Lily's father, he was so overjoyed at his daughter being made Keeper that he had wanted to send her a broomstick. According to Lily's mother, Ginny Potter, her father had not known about the Lightener she had bought for her, but was only angry at the fact that he had not gone to pick it out himself.

But the best part of being made Keeper was Michael Chang. Michael happened to be the Seeker on the Ravenclaw team (Lin Chang was rumored to horrible at Seeking, and was apparently quite put out that she could not follow in her mother's footsteps) and was so happy for Lily's appointment that he sent her Singing Sousaflowers. These were delivered by a purple tinted owl from the very popular Lady Flora's Magical Flowers shop, and sang beautiful harmonies to a surprised but ecstatic Lily. Even more excited was Thomas, who highly approved the exclusive flowers. He dubbed them the "best quality singing flowers" he had ever seen, which meant a lot to Lily because she knew that Thomas shared the same love and knowledge for plants that his father did.

Ari, on the other hand, did not approve of the flowers. It turned out to be that Ari was allergic to singing sunflowers, and left the Great Hall that morning in a frenzy of spots, and sneezes that were oddly melodic. She spent most of History of Magic in the infirmary, and emerged stuffy-nosed and irritated at Michael Chang and his thoughtful gift.

Lily was in the best mood she had experienced at Hogwarts so far. There was the prospect of (officially) being Michael Chang's girlfriend; she had been made Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team; and her father wasn't even mad that Lily had kept her flying a secret from him.

The only thing that put a slight damper on Lily's spirits was the empty bed in her dormitory. Naturally, the prospect of failing potions this year did not make Lily any happier, but at least she could try and control her grade. The empty bed situation however was out of Lily's control. She had yet to stay awake long enough to see who had slept in Charlotte's old bed, and had yet to awake early enough to catch them.

"I think you should stop worrying about it," Ari sneezed. It was two days after the Singing Sunflowers incident and Ari was still suffering the side effects of her allergic reaction. Though Lily had given the flowers to Professor Sprout, Thomas had smuggled a Singing Sunflower from the bouquet to examine it. Just one little speck of pollen from the sunflowers had sent Ari into another whirl of sneezes.

"Are you not the least bit curious about our new roommate?" Lily asked incredulously, not looking up from the cap she was mending. Her favorite oversized knit beret in Gryffindor-scarlet had developed a large hole in it, and the weather was becoming chilly.

"Quite frankly, I'd be more concerned about your Potions grade," Thomas said nonchalantly. They were in the common room, and Thomas was strewn across his favorite comfy chair as if he were king of the room. "I mean, your grades in there have never been top notch, so I wouldn't get so distracted if I were you."

"Shut it!" Ari yelled at the same time as Lily.

"Ignore him," Ari said soothingly to Lily, while pointing her wand behind her and sending a jet of water at Thomas' face.

"Hey!" he sputtered, his arms flailing.

"I take back what I said. I don't want to agree with anything Thomas the Git has said," Ari said calmly as she put her wand away. "I am a _bit_ curious, come to think of it."

"Excellent!" Lily said happily as she slapped hands with Ari.

"Are you kidding me? You're going to _encourage_—" Thomas was cut off by another jet of water from Ari's wand.

That night, Ari and Lily went to bed right after dinner to start on their homework. From eight until half past eleven, they sat in bed doing homework lit only by the soft glows emitting from their bed lamps and the nearly full moon outside.

"I'm glad you're awake," Lily said, looking up from her Potions book.

"It's not a problem," Ari grinned. "I can stay awake for the entire night! I just prefer to sleep. But really, I don't see what the big deal is. Honestly…I only said I'd do this because it made Thomas angry." Ari gave Lily a pathetic look and leaned forward in her direction. "Don't tell Thomas I told you this, but you really should be concentrating more on Potions. You can't let Vintigo win!"

"I'm trying!" Lily said angrily. "You don't understand. You have these easy calming and sleeping potions, while I have to attempt O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level stuff! It would have been easier if I were old enough, or if I had…"

"The Half-Blood Prince's book?" Ari asked slyly. Lily had been told the story of the book, and she of course had told it to Ari.

"I wouldn't use that book even if I thought it could help me!" Lily said quickly. "I don't care that Snape turned out to be innocent, that book really got my dad into trouble!"

"But I thought you _liked_ trouble," Ari leaned back against her pillows and folded her arms.

"Yeah, I do, but I would also prefer to start my own adventures, and not recreate my dad's sixth year here."

"Well, you really can't escape the fact that Harry Potter is your dad. Look who your enemy is: A Potions teacher, and Draco Malfoy's son! Look who your best friends are: Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegoods son, _plus_ the daughter of one of your grandfather's best friends!"

"That just makes your dad sound really old," Lily chuckled.

"Well, he is, come to think of it…" Ari said thoughtfully. "But hey, my mum loved him, so age obviously isn't a problem."

"Look, it's midnight!" Lily pointed to the grandfather clock across the room that was beginning to chime midnight. "I never make it past midnight, make sure to wake me!"

"Not a…not a…prob…prob…problem," Ari yawned widely.

"Did you just yawn?" Lily asked quickly. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy.

"No, I was simp…simp…simply clearing my-ay-ay," Ari yawned again and rubbed her eyes. "Throat." Ari's head suddenly lolled onto her shoulder.

"Ari, no!" Lily scrambled out of bed and lunged with all of her strength at Ari's bed. But just as she reached the edge of Ari's bed, Lily fell to the ground. The life drained out of her body, and her limbs became weak and tired. As Lily lay on the wooden floorboards, her eyelids closing, she could have sworn that she saw a phoenix fly past the window yet again.

"Ouch…" Lily groaned. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and Lily had a gigantic headache. She raised her hand to her head and blearily opened her eyes. Beams of light and dust particles hit her face. The moment Lily had raised her hand she had hit a bed skirt and released dust from it.

She sat up stiffly. Not only was her head in pain, but also her back and limbs were aching.

"I can't believe I fell asleep on the floor!" Lily muttered to herself. Indeed, she was on the hard wooden floor next to Ari's bed. She pulled herself up and was given a small shock. Resting on Ari's pillows was a pair of feet.

"Ari!" Lily yanked the bedding off to reveal Ari's head at the foot of the bed.

"What's…huh?" Ari blinked open her eyes and looked up at Lily. "Morning Lily!" Ari sat up and looked questioningly at her friend. "What's with the lines on your face? You looked like you slept on the floor."

"I _did_ sleep on the floor!" Lily snapped. "If I remember correctly, I was trying to stop you from falling asleep before me."

"Oh yeah…" Ari grinned. "I dunno what happened. I never get tired like that. I felt like I'd been hit by some kind of sleeping spell."

"Me too!" Lily suddenly felt more awake. "Why didn't I realize this before? I felt like I had been drugged, or hit over the head with a large mallet each time I tried to stay up past midnight."

"You know what this means?" Ari asked as she glanced over at Charlotte's old bed. Yet again, the sheets were twisted and used but there was no body in them. "Whoever is sleeping in here with us is using magic on us. But why would they do that?"

Lily was staring hard at the bed. "I don't know, but it's pretty obvious that whoever is in here with us doesn't want us to know." Lily remembered something. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Every time this happens, I keep thinking I see a phoenix flying around outside the window!"

"You're probably just hallucinating. I thought that I saw a giant Chocolate Frog hurtling towards me last night, but it must have been you trying to wake me up!" Ari giggled.

Lily shook her head. "I know I'm not hallucinating. Something weird is going on here, and I intend to get to the bottom of this. There's an easy solution, too." Lily grabbed her dressing gown and threw it on, then wrenched the door to their room open.

"Where are you going?" Ari asked, getting out of bed.

"To the Great Hall. It's still early," Lily pointed to Ellie Aria's and Lilac Finnegan's beds. Both were still sleeping. "Whoever is already in the Great Hall is up earlier than they have to be. Let's go see what Gryffindors are awake!"

Ari complained the whole way down to the Great Hall about being in her dressing gown, but Lily knew that they had no time to waste.

"You look fine!" Lily snapped when Ari said she wanted to turn around and change.

They burst through the doors and into the Great Hall. The staff table was completely empty, but the usual spread of breakfast foods were already on every table.

The Slytherin table was empty save for Connor Weasely, who was picking moodily at a piece of toast. At the Hufflepuff table, a group of fifth years were grumbling about a practice O.W.L. test over their porridge. Seated at the Ravenclaw table was a small group of sixth years had books propped against milk jugs. Each person had a fork in one hand and a quill in the other.

"Not again!" groaned one of them as they examined their quill. They had just dipped it into a bowl of potatoes and there was now one sticking off the end of the quill.

Much to Lily's delight, there were very few people at the Gryffindor table. Lily and Ari began to walk down the row next to the table. They dismissed the two second years whispering, a sleepy looking Tessa Oakes who smiled at Lily, and came up to Erick, who was reading _The Daily Prophet._

"Good morning Erick! I haven't seen much of you this week," Lily greeted him apologetically.

"That's okay, I don't mind," he smiled and looked up from _The Daily_ _Prophet_. A bemused expression came over his face. "What are you doing in your dressing gowns?"

"Oh…" Lily glanced down. Ari turned bright pink and pulled her gown tighter around her. "We're kinda in a hurry. Hey, you haven't seen any third year girls down here, have you?"

"Just Fiona," he jerked his thumb over at Fiona Featherstone, who was at the other end of the table. She wasn't eating, but was reading what looked like a very thick, very old book. "I've been here for awhile too. Where are you going?"

Lily and Ari had rushed off to Fiona. Breathlessly, they slid into the spaces on either side of Fiona.

"Good morning, _Fiona_," Ari lowered her eyebrows. "If that really is your name!"

"It is my name," Fiona said, puzzled. "Are you alright, Ari?"

"The question isn't if _I'm_ alright. The question is if _you _are alright!" Ari slammed her fist down on the table.

"Ari, I'll take it over from here," Lily whispered and calmly pat Ari's fist. Ari crossed her arms and shot menacing looks at Fiona. Lily turned to Fiona and crossed her arms.

"So Fiona, I have not really gotten the chance to speak with you."

"You've been very busy. I saw what Professor Vintigo gave you in Potions." Fiona nodded her head understandingly.

"Yeah, well, that's no excuse," Lily said sweetly. "Although I haven't seen you around outside of classes and, of course, meals. With whom are you rooming? I would have thought you would be in my room, with the other third year Gryffindor girls."

Fiona gave Lily a strange look. "You do know you are in your dressing gown, right?"

"Don't try changing the subject!" Ari burst out. "We know what you've been doing!"

"What have I been doing?" Fiona asked calmly.

"Uh…" Ari glanced at Lily.

"Fiona, you've been putting some kind of sleeping spells on us and then sleeping in Charlotte's old bed," Lily equaled Fiona's cool tone.

Fiona laughed. "I have not been putting sleeping spells on you! But I _have_ been sleeping in your dorm."

"How come we've never seen you?" Ari asked suspiciously.

"I cannot tell you much," Fiona said slowly. "All I can say is that it is crucial for me to not draw too much attention to myself."

"I think an empty bed that looks like it's been slept in every night draws a _little_ attention," Lily couldn't help but smile.

"But only you and Ari have noticed," Fiona said quickly. "Obviously I have not drawn too much attention." She began twisting a piece of her magnificent hair around her finger and bit her lip.

"Look, I think this is kind of weird, but if you want us to keep it a secret we will," Ari said. "Just stop doing the weird sleeping thing." Ari winked at Fiona.

"I am afraid that you will continue to fall asleep at midnight if you are in the dormitory," Fiona said seriously.

"So you _have_ been putting sleeping spells on us!" Ari exclaimed.

"I did not actually say that," Fiona picked up her book again. "I think the two of you had better go upstairs and change before the entire school gets here." Just as she said this, a large group of students came pouring into the Great Hall.

"What the—" Ari began, but Lily grabbed her and pulled her away.

"See you later, Fiona!" Lily called as she dragged Ari.

"That was weird. I'm not satisfied, she's not telling us everything!" Ari crossed her arms as she and Lily walked back upstairs. They darted behind a statue of Frida the Flouter as Michael Chang and a group of fourth year Ravenclaws walked past.

"Me too," whispered Lily. "But we're not going to find anything out if we keep hanging out in the dormitory at midnight. Our best bet would be to wait in the common room, but we can't do it tonight. We should wait until she least expects it."

The coast was clear, and Lily and Ari jumped out and started off quicker than before.

"Just wait until we tell Thomas," Ari rubbed her hands maliciously. "I can't wait to see his face when we tell him that not only did we find the person whose been sleeping in our dormitory, but the person happens to be his _Fiona_."

_I know this was a shorter chapter than the others, but I needed to get this part out of the way as soon as possible. It is very crucial to the plot, and I had been planning on doing it earlier. Now the plot can finally start picking up pace!_

_I am way excited for the plot now. I hope you are enjoying it._

_And as always, **PLEASE COMMENT!**_


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